


Sight

by Vetiver



Series: Senses [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adulting, Bucky and Loki Both Love Knives, Enthusiastic Consent, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Jane Foster is a Good Bro, Loki is Not So Bad, Minor Jane Foster/Thor, Oral Sex, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Wall Sex, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:00:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24063964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vetiver/pseuds/Vetiver
Summary: After a mission keeps them apart for several weeks, Bucky & Darcy realize they should make some plans for their future... at some point, when they're not busy having all the sex...Part 5 (the final part) of the Senses series.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Series: Senses [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564087
Comments: 155
Kudos: 289





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back for part five of Bucky & Darcy's adventures. The fic is complete, and I will be posting at least one chapter per day, as I make final edits.

“Fuck.”

Every fibre of Bucky’s body was tired. Exhausted. Fifteen days of covert ops, rooting out a series of small Hydra cells through Kazakhstan, solo. He’d eliminated four of his initial five targets, but intel along the way had added at least two more to the list; extraction was still days away at best, and between the secrecy of the mission and the remote location, contact with base had been sporadic.

Which also meant that contact with Darcy had been sporadic. And that was part of the reason he was still laying awake despite the fatigue bleeding out of his pores. He’d already scrolled through the texts he’d received from her the last time he’d been in range of… anything: her usual chatty updates and a couple of delicious photos that were simultaneously keeping him going and also driving him slightly mad. Jerking off to thoughts of her was enough, sometimes, to unwind him enough for sleep, but this time it hadn’t helped, and it wasn’t like there was much else to do in the dingy little outbuilding he was surreptitiously camped in.

In the weak light filtering through cracks in the walls – better to rest during the day and move after dark – he pulled out his notebook. For a few minutes he just vented, writing out his annoyance with the place and the length of time and how much still remained to be done. And then he thought of something that Wilson had said, the last time they’d talked about his journals. “Ask yourself who you’re talking to, when you’re writing,” Sam had said, in that way he had of sounding offhand when he was anything but. “Might be someone different every time, but go with it. Might help you put some shit to rest.”

With that thought in mind, he turned to a fresh page, wrote down the date, and hovered the pen over the paper for a second before beginning:

_Dear Steve,_

_You’ll never read this. I still don’t get how your old-man self got back here, then back to wherever you live now, the first time, and I know it’s not going to happen again. This letter’s not really for old man Steve, anyhow. It’s for you. Captain America, or Captain America the first, I guess, even though Sam still dodges away from using the title more than he has to._

_This feels like you should be here. Maybe all of the Howlies. I remember a lot more of that than I used to, these days. Sitting in a shitty barn in the ass end of Kazakhstan getting ready to chase down some more tail ends of Hydra, and feeling like it’d somehow be almost fun doing this with you._

_Maybe I’m just an old man remembering the past wrong – or maybe I’m just losing my patience with this because I’ve actually got someone to go home to. That’s why I’m really missing you these days, buddy. You should be standing up there as my best man. Because believe it or not, somebody is actually crazy enough to want to marry this semi-stable hundred-something-year-old man. Assuming I don’t get my ass blown up out here in the middle of nowhere._

_I wish you could meet her, Stevie. Her name’s Darcy and she would have knocked me for a loop back before the war, too. She’s a knockout, dark hair and big blue eyes and built like a pinup, and she’s a handful, smart as a whip and swears like a trooper, and also probably the kindest person I’ve ever met. About a million times too good for the likes of me, and I still can’t understand how I got so lucky. If you ever heard Thor tell a story about a woman knocking him out with a taser – that’s my girl._

Pausing his pen for a moment, Bucky found himself smiling, his eyelids starting to feel heavy. But he wanted to finish what he’d started. Closure, as Sam would have said.

_I don’t know what kind of life I can give her, being with someone like me. I’ve still got at least four more years that I’ve got to live on the compound, according to the courts, and even after that, I don’t know if it’d ever be that white picket fence, kids and a dog that everybody used to picture going home to. Turns out I’m more of a cat guy anyhow. Either way, I wish you were here to see it all._

_Your friend,_

_Bucky_

Closing the book, he stretched back out on his bedroll and finally went to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Thirty-seven days. Bucky had been gone for more than a month and to say Darcy was going a little crazy would have been an understatement. He’d only been able to make contact four times so far, and two of those had been while she was sleeping so she’d just woken up to texts from him and hadn’t been able to actually converse. She was aching to hear his voice, put her arms around him, have him back in their bed with her again, but mostly as the days ticked by she was just worried sick.

“Try and eat something, Darce,” Jane said, setting a donut down on the desk. It was a strange role-reversal, Darcy having to be the one to be reminded to look after herself. “I know how much this sucks, so I’m not going to tell you not to worry, but you always tell me to ‘eat something and try to work’, and you’re always right.” Sitting down in the nearest chair, she wheeled it closer. “Why don’t you come and have dinner with us tonight? I promise we’ll order in; I know nobody wants a repeat of Thor trying to cook.”

That did make Darcy chuckle just a little; Thor had indeed tried to make a dinner shortly after Bucky’s departure on the mission, and it had gone so wrong that Loki had skulked out of Darcy’s old room and used magic to get rid of the mess once the smoke alarms had begun to go off. “Yeah, okay.” She attempted for a minute or so to make sense of the project timelines that had been on the screen in front of her for the past half-hour, before pushing her chair back with a huff of annoyance and taking a bite of the donut. “This fucking sucks, Janey. I know I need to get better at this whole thing because it’s the life and this isn’t even _that_ long compared to some of the shit you’ve dealt with, or even just the average person with a partner in the military, honestly, and I know I’m supposed to just, you know, keep calm and carry on or whatever. But I am literally _the worst_ at this.”

Jane patted her shoulder. “No, you’re not. It’s a learning curve. And it doesn’t help when there’s not much communication.”

“And no one there to watch his back.” That was really the crux of it, the part that kept her up nights and made her useless half the days. When he went on missions with the team – she was still scared for him then, but she had faith that between them the Avengers would bring each other home. And although she knew that Bucky was enhanced, tough, and frighteningly competent, she couldn’t help the fear that started ratcheting up in between contacts. It had been eight days since she’d last heard from him and the mission wasn’t supposed to have gone this long and she couldn’t let herself dwell too long on that so she took another bite although she wasn’t hungry.

She nearly choked on it a second later when her phone beeped – with the tone assigned to the sat phone Bucky used on missions. “Oh my god.” Nearly launching herself at the phone, she scarcely noticed that Jane discreetly left the room. Darcy swiped her thumbprint and went practically boneless with relief when she saw the words on the screen. _Called in for extraction. I’ll see you soon, sweetheart._

With her hands suddenly shaky, it took her longer than usual to type out her response. _Fucking thank god. Are you okay?_

_Filthy and exhausted but absolutely fine. It’s gonna take them a while to get here and get me home and I HAVE to go to debrief first so it’s going to be really late. Or maybe tomorrow. Have lost track of what time it is there. Have to shut down this channel but text you from the plane if I can._

_Ok. Love you._

_Love you too, doll. xx_

Darcy slumped in the chair and tilted her head back, needing a minute to process the wetness on her cheeks and realize that she’d been crying. “Taking tomorrow off,” she called, when she trusted her voice again.

“Good reason, I hope?” Jane replied, poking her head round the office door.

Suddenly starving, Darcy nodded as she took a larger bite of the donut, registering for the first time that it was _delicious._ “He’s on his way home soon. Said it’ll take a while, but still.”

“We should count you out for dinner, then, I guess?”

“Yeah. Better make things look a bit more like ‘welcome home’ and a bit less ‘cave of moping’. Can you order me a pad Thai, though, if you’re ordering in? Maybe a couple extra,” Darcy amended. “I know he’s probably going to roll in not having eaten for eleventy-five hours.”

The corners of Jane’s mouth twitched. “Yeah, because pad Thai is going to be the _first_ thing on his mind, I’m sure.”

Stuffing the last of the donut into her mouth, Darcy wadded up the bag it had come in and threw it in Jane’s direction. “Didn’t say _first_ thing,” she replied, not caring that her mouth was full.

A couple of hours later, she was scrambling around changing the bedsheets, stuffing clothes in the laundry and trying not to trip over Alpine when her phone pinged with Bucky’s regular notification tone, the one that meant he wasn’t using the sat phone anymore. _Wheels up, on my way. Hill came along for the flight so she’s gonna debrief me now._

She knew that if he hadn’t already told her where he was coming from, it meant he couldn’t say, so she didn’t ask how long it would be. _Trying to resist the urge to make a terrible joke about me debriefing you later._

It took a minute for him to reply. _Trying to explain to Barton and Hill why I just burst out laughing. Fuck, I missed you._

 _Still missing you,_ she replied. _Glad you don’t have to do debrief when you get back._

_It’ll still be late. I’d tell you not to wait up but I know you’re gonna._

“Obviously, dumbass,” she said aloud, before typing. _OBVIOUSLY. Go get the debriefing done and text me when you’re close. I’ve got big plans for you._

_Likewise, sweetheart. You got no idea._

_Pretty sure I’ve got SOME idea,_ she replied.

_Guess we’ll see. Love you. xx_

A knock on the door a few minutes later almost made her jump out of her skin, and for an insane second she almost wondered whether it would be Bucky – he’d surprised her before – but a second later the AI announced that it was Thor outside. Darcy opened the door to find him holding an enormous delivery bag. “I didn’t think Jane was ordering enough. I know what it’s like to get back from a mission and suddenly find yourself _starving._ Here, let me put this in the kitchen for you.”

“Thanks, big guy.” Tearing open the bag and finding three pad Thai, an order of mango salad, one of satay, and a box of spring rolls, Darcy found herself a little emotional again. “It… it’s good to know I’m not the only one who’s got Bucky’s back.”

“Of course. Come here,” Thor added, pulling her into a hug. “He’s a good man. I’m glad he’s finally coming back to you.”

“You can say that again,” she replied, pulling back out of the embrace and grabbing a spring roll for herself. “Anyhow, don’t let me keep you from your dinner. How are things going over there with Sulky McGoth? Your brother?” she added, when Thor looked confused at the new nickname.

“Oh. Loki. He’s coming around.” Thor had been saying that for two months now. “He actually came out of his room when the food arrived just now.”

“And you left him alone with Jane?” Darcy replied. “Go rescue your girlfriend and eat your dinner.” She wasn’t actually worried that Loki would do anything untoward to Jane, but it had to be awkward as hell. “Go on, I’m going to get changed and save most of this for Bucky. Thanks, Thor.”

Thor patted her on the back. “Any time. And tell Bucky I expect him to come to the gym and spar with me tomorrow.”

She shook her head. “Nuh-uh. He’s all mine tomorrow. You can borrow him the day after.”

With a loud laugh, Thor bid her goodnight and left.

She ate as much as her nerves would allow – not a lot – and tidied up a bit more, then took a shower, checking her phone the moment she was done, in case he’d texted again. No such luck. They’d be bringing him home on one of the quinjets, and though she’d never been on one herself she knew they were a hell of a lot faster than a commercial airliner. “What do you think, Alpine?” she asked, as the kitten watched her change into a little camisole and shorts set that could barely be called pajamas. “What’s the furthest away he could have been… like Australia, Japan maybe?” Her hand hovered for a moment over her collection of tiny perfume bottles before pulling out one that smelled of honey and resin and sex: a light dab on her collarbones and another down her cleavage. “Quinjet’s gotta be at least twice as fast as a normal plane, so maybe maximum… ten hours or so? He texted like two hours ago, so…” Looking at the clock, she sighed, and decided to watch a movie to try and take her mind off waiting.

They both had weighted blankets, but she’d taken to exclusively using Bucky’s while he’d been gone, toting all twenty pounds of it back and forth between the bedroom and the couch as needed. After nearly six weeks, it didn’t really smell like him anymore, but she still buried her face in it and inhaled as she settled herself on the sofa and turned on a mindless rom-com. The film came and went without any word, so she let it tick straight over into its sequel, debating whether she should have a nap so as not to be completely wiped out if he didn’t roll in till dawn. It was quarter past midnight and she had just about made up her mind to turn the lights out and lay down, when her phone finally made a noise.

_Almost back, just need to stow my gear and shower._

_Shower here,_ she replied. _I’ll even help you._ Even as she typed it, she knew he’d say no, and sure enough it popped up seconds later.

_Love where your brain is going but don’t want to walk in the door like this. I’ll make it quick. xx_

_You’d better._ Adding a couple of heart emojis, she pressed send, set her phone aside and turned the tv off. Once she’d moved in, he’d started using the locker room to clean up after missions, and as much as she didn’t want to wait an extra second for him, she could see why he’d want a reset, want to leave it behind before he walked in the door.

Despite the flirty texts, she never knew quite what to expect when Bucky came back in from a mission; depending on his state of mind and how things had gone out there, it could be sex up against the wall or it could be easing him into bed, running her fingers over his scalp to soothe away nightmares. Or anything in between. Having him walk in the door in one piece was enough.

Bucky was light on his feet, but it was late enough that the compound was practically silent; about fifteen minutes after his last text, she could hear his steps approaching in the hall. Waiting just inside the door, she felt a sudden wave of nerves as the lock disengaged: thirty-seven days of waiting somehow compressed into a few excruciatingly long seconds before the door swung in and revealed him.

She barely had time to register that he was really, truly, finally home before he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, bending down to come closer to her height and bury his face in her hair, almost as if he was melting. “Sweetheart,” he murmured. “God, Darcy. Missed you. Missed you so much.”

Letting one hand slide up the back of his neck as she splayed her other hand out over the solid planes of his back, she took a minute to just let herself believe that he was real. “Missed you more.” Tears were prickling at the corners of her eyes, but she swallowed hard before they could leak out. “Fuck, let me look at you. Need to see you properly so I know you’re okay.”

“Mmm. Not letting you go, though,” he replied, nuzzling at her ear before pulling away just a bit and straightening his back, tilting his chin to look down into her eyes.

She looked him up and down quickly first, verifying that he wasn’t hiding any obvious injuries from her, before meeting his gaze. He was freshly shaven – making her wonder for a moment whether he’d grown his beard in the whole time he was away – and dressed in a soft, slightly threadbare t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. His hair, still wet from the shower, had been a bit overdue for a cut even before he’d left and was now just long enough to have a hint of a curl in the front. “Goddamn, you’re a sight for sore eyes. How do you manage to clean up so nice with just ten minutes in the locker room?”

Bucky laughed, just a chuckle low in his throat. “Don’t know about ‘nice’, but who wouldn’t clean up quick, when they’ve got you to come home to?”

“How are you, really?” She could see the fatigue behind his smile, the dark circles under his eyes. “If you just want to crash right now, that’s totally cool. Or there’s a ton of Thai food, if you’re hungry.”

With a sigh, he leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. “All I’ve wanted since I last walked out this door was to see you. So long as I don’t have to let you out of my sight any time soon, I don’t mind what we do.”

She adored all the sides of him, but when he came home like this, weary and soft and a little clingy, it made her heart positively ache, made her want to pour enough love into him to make up for all the years he’d been without it. “Well then,” she began. “How about a kiss?”

Bucky’s arms pulled a little tighter around her. “Fuck, yes.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One silver lining to being stuck at home is having lots of time to edit & post, so I'll aim to get two chapters up per day if I can. Chapters will continue to alternate between Bucky's and Darcy's POV in this story.

He was only a step and a half inside his front door, he still had his boots on, he couldn’t remember when he’d last eaten and he hadn’t slept in close to twenty-four hours, but it was fucking _perfect_. Finally having Darcy in his arms, watching her come up on tiptoes to reach him, her eyelashes drifting closed as they both moved to close the tiny distance between them, and that moment where his lips met hers felt like finally drawing a breath after too long underwater. After weeks where his only physical human contacts had been violent, it was completely overwhelming to feel something good again, to be able to shut his eyes and let everything zoom in on the soft pressure of her mouth, the slide of her tongue against his lower lip, the warmth of their shared breath and Darcy’s low hum of pleasure as she molded her body to his.

When she pulled back, just enough for a breath, he reeled her in again, needing more. “Let’s move this to the bedroom,” Darcy murmured, hardly even breaking the kiss.

“Don’t want to stop,” he replied, almost as a reflex, before closing the tiny distance again.

She gave a laugh that he felt rather than heard. “Oh, trust me, I’ve got no plans to stop any of this. Just want to take it somewhere more comfortable.” One more kiss, two, three, and then she really did take a step back and brought her little hands up to cradle his face, the gentle touch making his heart feel like it was swelling up in his chest. “And Bucky? We’ve got all night, and nowhere to be all day tomorrow. So whatever you need… whatever you want. In whatever order,” she added.

“Only thing I need is right here.”

“Likewise. Obviously. You beautiful, beautiful man.” It felt like words that should have been for someone else, but there was nothing but truth in Darcy’s eyes. “And trust me, I have _so_ many ways I wanna make up for lost time here. But if you’re starving, or if you fall asleep when your head hits the pillow or if you need to talk about what happened out there… just saying, those are all _fine._ Or, you know, if you want to let this epic makeout session go forth to any number of possible conclusions, that is also very, very fine with me. Like, _so_ fine. Now come on,” she added, before he could answer. “Boots off. Bedroom.”

He kicked the boots off, let himself be tugged by the hand, and used the few steps to the bedroom to finally really take in the sight of her: her hair tumbling over her bare shoulders, the tiny little top and shorts that were practically indecent in the way they barely contained her curves. “I like this on you,” he told her, letting the words come out low and quiet as he slid his left hand along the curve of her side to rest just where a little stripe of bare skin peeked out at the small of her back.

Darcy licked her lips, and the motion made him wonder what the hell he was doing not kissing her. “I think you’ll like it even better off me,” she replied, leaning in to breathe the words into his ear. She wiggled a little and he realized she was kicking the shorts off; a second later she was pulling the top off and tossing it over his shoulder, and then tugging at the hem of his shirt. “Because even if we’re just going to crawl in and go to sleep, I really, really need to just feel all of you right now.”

“God, sweetheart.” He yanked the t-shirt over his head and kicked the sweats off – not missing the pleased noise Darcy made when she saw he hadn’t bothered with underwear – and pulled her back against his body. “The way you always read my damn mind.” Her skin was so soft, he wanted to lose himself in the feel of her, in every possible way. Making love to her, making her feel good, was absolute goddamn heaven, a privilege he still couldn’t quite believe was his - but one that his body was quickly warming up for as he leaned down to get back to kissing her. But it wasn’t just that. The warmth of her touch, the way the circle of her arms could put him back together even when his brain wanted him to shatter, every time those hands ran over the scars and metal of him like he was made of gold. “I love you,” he breathed, between kisses. “Love you.” He wished he knew a better way to tell her all of it. Instead he did his best to show her, feeling like he wanted to stretch every step of this out to make up for all the nights he’d been gone, wanted to just get lost in the tangle of their mouths, the slide of his tongue against hers, his flesh hand tangling in her hair as he cradled the back of her skull.

It was a sweet kind of torture, waiting till Darcy’s sighs turned to whimpers against his mouth, till his cock had been hard for so long that it was starting to ache, before he left his left hand slide down from her waist to her ass so that he could rock his hips against hers. “Fuck,” Darcy groaned. “I know you’ll be proud of yourself if you make me come without even really touching me, but I _really_ need you inside me right now.”

Laughing – a little at what she’d said, but mostly just at the rare sensation of pure goddamn joy – he turned them around so that he was the one with his back to the bed, sat down on the edge of it and pulled her down to straddle him. “Sweetheart, I’ve been dreaming of being inside you for weeks.” It still made blood rush to his cheeks, talking like that, but Darcy’s response always made it worthwhile and this time was no exception; the expression on her face looked she would happily eat him alive and come back for seconds. And then she was steadying herself with one hand on his metal shoulder and the other reaching down to wrap round the base of his cock, and he couldn’t help the filthy moan that escaped him as she sank down onto him till he was balls-deep, wrapped up in the slick heat of her, such a gorgeous sensation after so long that for a second he thought he was going to lose it then and there. “Sorry, doll,” he gasped, holding her still while he tried to suck in a little more oxygen. “Give me… give me just a second.”

“Oh, Bucky… oh god.” Darcy sounded breathless herself, and he was transfixed for a second by the rapid rise and fall of her breasts. “Don’t apologize. Do you know… _fuck_ … you know how hot it is, watching you struggle to keep it together? Only thing better is the way you look when you come.”

He had to dig his teeth into his lower lip and screw his eyes shut for a second to try and control the shudder of want that ran through his body. “Don’t want that to happen too fast, but you’re not making it easy.”

“Let it.” She nuzzled her way along his jaw and then ran the tip of her tongue along the edge of his ear and nipped gently at his earlobe. “Let it. We’ve got all the time in the world to go slow.” As if to punctuate her point, she clenched all her muscles around him. “Wanna feel you come inside me, so I really know you’re home. Wanna see you lose all that control.”

She really was going to take him apart fast – and he was going to love every second of it – but he couldn’t just take all the pleasure for himself. “You first, sweetheart.” Moving his right hand round, he splayed his fingers out and slid his thumb down to where their bodies were joined, running around and gently over her clit as he bucked his hips up to hit deeper inside her. The noise she made travelled straight down his spine to reverberate at his core, and he hoped to god she was close. “Tell me, Darcy. Tell me what you need.”

“God, so… so good.” Her breath was coming in gasps, like she’d just run a four-minute mile, and he took half a second to really take in that she was in that state for him: cheeks flushed, lips parted, eyes half-closed, leaning back a little so that he could touch her like this. “Bucky, god, I’m so fucking close… ohhhh.” Hearing that moan, he found the exact spot on her little bundle of nerves and focused there, rubbing a tight little circle that made her just repeat his name over and over like a prayer till he felt her tense up and then dissolve into spasms round his cock that seemed to echo all the way out to her shaky limbs. “Please, Bucky, please,” she whimpered, even as he could feel the obvious aftershocks of her release. “Wanna feel you too.”

Wrapping his arms round to hold their bodies together, he twisted them round so that Darcy was laid out on the bed, and only then did he finally let himself give in to what his body had been pleading for and started to move, pulling nearly all the way out of her before snapping his hips forward to slide back in in one quick stroke. “Fuck, Darcy.” He did it again, feeling her muscles still fluttering around him each time he bottomed out inside.

“Please, Bucky,” she repeated. “Harder.”

“Oh god, love.” He did as she asked, feeling nearly delirious, feeling like he was nothing but nerve endings and desire as their bodies thudded together over and over, till everything in him coiled up in his groin and exploded into her, his voice breaking on an incoherent sound as he slowed to a halt, resting his sweaty forehead on hers as the final shudders passed through him.

“Mmmm,” Darcy sighed, as he felt her hands slide down to his ass, not letting him pull out and roll his weight off her just yet. “Welcome home.”


	4. Chapter 4

Darcy didn’t know which of them had fallen asleep first, but when she opened her eyes hours later they were tangled up together, hardly moved from the way they’d wound up after that delicious, hectic burst of reunion sex. Bucky was still out – dreaming, if the rapid flickering movement behind his eyelids was anything to go by – and she was relieved to see a little hint of a smile on his face. She didn’t often see him sleeping, and some of those times were still marred by nightmares, so she relished the chance to study his features in the soft early light. He looked younger, softer somehow, and she wondered if this was his true face, the one he’d worn before Hydra, before the Commandos, before all of it.

It was just after seven, and they hadn’t eaten when he came in the night before; she would have been tempted to get up and surprise him with breakfast, but the last thing she wanted was for him to wake up to an empty bed, not on his first morning back at home. He’d never quite spelled it out, but she could read between the lines, the way that some early mornings she would feel him startle awake and then pull her close, as if he was afraid she would disappear. Deciding that he would wake on his own when he got hungry enough and that in the meantime he probably needed the sleep, she slipped out of bed just long enough to use the bathroom and brush her teeth.

When she slid back under the covers, moving in close to the solid warmth of Bucky’s chest, he shifted in his sleep and draped a heavy arm over her shoulders. Darcy almost could have drifted back to sleep, but after a few minutes his hand moved down to cup her ass, pulling her in a little closer. He got handsy in his sleep sometimes, but usually when he was getting close to waking up, so Darcy didn’t feel bad about draping her leg over his thigh and letting her own hand skim down on top of the blanket to ghost over the very obvious contour of his erection. Still asleep, he gave a little whine and bucked his hips. “Why do you have to be so goddamn delicious,” Darcy murmured, barely audible even to herself. The idea of waking him up with a blow job would have been so tempting, if not for the fact that most of Bucky’s history hadn’t involved much in the way of consent; instead, she moved in a little closer, letting her breasts crush up against his side as she leaned in to brush her lips against his shoulder, just past the point where vibranium met flesh. Following the line of scar tissue with a trail of light kisses, she had nearly reached his neck when she felt the little gasp as he started to wake.

“Darcy,” he rasped, his voice still heavy and almost impossibly low as he opened his eyes and turned to her. “You’re here.”

“Of course I am.” She dropped one more kiss where his shoulder curved into his neck, and then rested her cheek there. “Sure missed waking up to this gorgeous body beside me, though.”

Seeming to just realize that his hand was still on her ass, he tightened his grip a little before stroking the same spot. “Just thinking the same thing, sweetheart. Had to make sure I wasn’t still dreaming for a second there.”

“You’re not.” She traced her fingers across his chest, pausing to circle his nipple, then flick across it, enjoying his sharp intake of breath. A second later, though, it was drowned out by an obvious rumble from his stomach, and she couldn’t help a laugh. “You must be starving. I’m gonna make you breakfast... but can you wait like, five more minutes before I do?”

“Yeah, why? Oh.” As she slithered down the bed, his eyes grew wide. “Oh, love…”

Resting her chin on his stomach, she met his gaze. “If you don’t _want_ me to, just say the word, but don’t you dare say that I don’t _have_ to.” After all this time, it was still his token attempt to be a gentleman whenever she made the first move to go down on him. “Because let me tell you, unless you’ve got an objection right now… trust me, I _have to._ Been thinking about this for weeks.”

“Jesus,” he replied, arching his back a little as she moved lower. “Swear I’m still dreaming here.”

With a laugh, she pinched his hip. “Oh, this is real, alright.” Wriggling a little further down, she took a moment to just drink in the sight of him, the muscular planes of his stomach and hips converging towards his cock, which truly was a thing of beauty: hard and thick and flushed, twitching a little as she moved closer. The sound he made as she wrapped one hand around him and started tracing his veins with the tip of her tongue was positively gorgeous, and when she took him into her mouth she couldn’t help a groan of her own, needing to rub her thighs together for a little friction. She’d never been one to actually get off on giving oral, but Bucky was so responsive and just so goddamn hot and it felt so powerful to be the one giving him pleasure. And after this long apart, it didn’t take long before he was gasping her name, the urgency in his voice ratcheting up with each pass of her lips and tongue around him. A glance up his body showed her how close he was: every muscle and tendon from his torso up to his jaw all taut as bowstrings, while his thighs were beginning to tremble.

“Please, doll,” he gasped. “Fuck… please…”

Stroking with her hand, she took as much of him into her mouth as she could, then lifted her head a little and ran the tip of her tongue around the head of his cock, going back and forth over all his most sensitive spots till his voice went ragged, almost breaking over her name as she finally took him deeper again. And then a string of curses, each one louder than the last as he tensed up and let go, his cock throbbing against her tongue with each pulse of come that she swallowed down. Was it crazy that she loved the taste of him? As she ran her tongue round him one more time and then moved her head to kiss his hipbone, she decided she’d be crazy not to.

“Ready for breakfast?” she asked, laughing.

“What?” He looked utterly dazed. “C’mere.”

She moved up the bed enough to kiss him once, but then got up and pulled her robe on. “Breakfast in bed, then, since you don’t look ready to move,” she teased. “And since I don’t plan on us really getting out of this bed any time soon.”

Bucky rubbed a hand over his face, looking like he was trying to wake himself up. “If you come back in here I’m gonna forget about food anyways. Let me help you get breakfast and then we can both come back to bed.”

He stood and grabbed a pair of boxer-briefs out of his top drawer, but didn’t bother to put anything else on with them before walking into the bathroom. When he shut the door, Darcy sighed and headed for the kitchen; she had the egg carton in her hand, debating on the relative merits of scrambled versus fried, when he caught up to her. “What about all that Thai food you said you got?”

“You want Thai for breakfast?”

Bucky shrugged and took the eggs from her hand, putting them carefully back in the fridge before he started retrieving the aluminum takeout containers. “Why not? It’s food, it’s good. And I’ve got to admit, I’m fucking starving.” Leaning past her, he turned on the oven and started sticking things inside.

“Why not just use the microwave?” she asked. “It’d be quicker.”

“Might as well warm it all up. Besides…” After closing the oven door, he leaned back against the counter, folded his arms, and raised an eyebrow at her. “While we’re waiting, there’s something I’ve gotta do.”

It could have been a shower. It could have been getting dressed. But she had a feeling it was neither of those. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” A quick reach across and he had the belt of her robe between his metal fingers, and he began to very slowly pull on it. The satiny fabric gave way easily, the robe falling open and giving access to his hands as he moved closer, backing her up against the opposite counter before dropping to his knees on the tile floor. “Like I said,” he added, looking up at her with a shit-eating grin. “I’m _starving._ ”

He tugged her right leg up to rest on his shoulder, his hands on his hips to steady her against the counter, and the last coherent thought that flitted across Darcy’s brain was that his choice of words was appropriate; his mouth was open on her immediately and his tongue was _everywhere_ , like she was a drug, like she was the only thing keeping him alive. “Fuck,” she groaned. “I missed this.”

Bucky laughed, pulling back for a second to meet her eyes again. “Not as much as I did, doll.”

She couldn’t help letting a hand come to rest on his head, and only barely resisted the impulse to actually push his face back towards her pussy. “Please, Bucky.”

Before she’d even finished the words, he’d picked up where he left off, his fingers digging into her hips a little as he teased his tongue around her clit, bringing her to the very edge of coming and holding her there till she thought she was going to go out of her mind. The final straw was when he moved his left hand to slide two fingers inside, barely needing to touch her before she was gasping out his name as the climax finally broke. His hands – the one still on her hip and the one between her thighs – were the only things holding her up, her legs turned completely to jelly, and he lowered her down to the floor to straddle his lap. “Couldn’t help myself.”

“Mmm.” Darcy brought her shaky hands up to run them through his hair, getting used to it: still far shorter than it had been when they’d first met, but well grown out compared to how he had taken to wearing it lately. “Breakfast of champions, right?”

At that, he tipped his head back and gave an honest-to-god roar of laughter, and she wished that she could snap a picture, or at least imprint it on her mind’s eye forever. It felt so damn good to make him laugh – especially to make him really break up like that. And the combination of his wide-open laughter with his nearly-naked body and the obscenely obvious erection barely contained by the thin cotton layer between them: it had to be the most delicious sight she’d ever seen. “You’re damn right, sweetheart,” he eventually replied, still a little breathless. “So,” he added, settling her more securely onto his lap, so that his cock was nestled right between her thighs. “Do you think we still have some time before the food’s ready?”

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she kissed him till she needed to pull away for oxygen. “Oh, believe me, we will _make_ time.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone curious about Bucky's pre-war love life? Darcy is...

Darcy did finally wind up making him scrambled eggs, but it was for dinner, and it was the first time they’d really put clothes on all day. She’d made him wait on the couch while she put the food together, claiming they’d never get to eat otherwise, and Bucky took the time to take the situation in, to freeze the moment in his brain with all the sensations intact. The looseness in his limbs that made him feel more than usually anchored; the scent clinging to his skin, a bit of Darcy’s perfume but mostly the smell of sex; the sight of Darcy moving around the kitchen, a t-shirt of his nearly hiding the shorts she wore with it. His girl. His fiancée – but that word was too fancy, one that didn’t sit comfortably on his tongue. His brain had already started moving on to the term he was impatient to use out loud: his _wife._ These days it didn’t seem like it made much difference to most people, and he wasn’t sure he had any room left to believe in any kind of god, but some part of his brain still heard his mother’s voice - knew that if she could see him now she’d ask him what the hell he was thinking, tell him he was just ‘playing house’ and that he’d better hurry up and make things right. He still couldn’t quite believe Darcy had agreed to marry him, and they hadn’t really talked much about what came next.

When Darcy came around the side of the couch and set a couple of plates down on the coffee table, she gave him that look she had, the one that sometimes made him wonder if she could read minds. “What are you thinking about?”

“Thinking that this is maybe one of the best days of my life. And I still can’t believe my dumb luck, that you’re gonna be my wife one of these days.”

He watched as Darcy’s thumb went to her ring, twisting it a little on her finger. After he’d proposed without one, he’d found the ring and done it all over again a couple weeks later, and he was still getting used to seeing it on her hand. “Correction – I’m the lucky one.” She took a seat, right in close to him with her thigh against the length of his, and grinned at him. “And best day of your life, huh?”

“So far. I mean, look at what we’ve been doing all day.”

Darcy bumped her shoulder against his, not seeming to care that she was hitting metal. “Definitely a new record for most orgasms I’ve had in one day. And it’s only, like, seven pm. We should do this more often.” Seeming to notice that she’d left him speechless, she poked him in the side. “Eat your food.”

Bucky did as he was told – he was hungry, after all, and they’d kind of forgotten about lunch somewhere in there – but he was still thinking about what she’d said. When they were done, he cleared away the dishes and brought back a box of cookies. “Ugh, you and your super-soldier metabolism,” Darcy groaned, but she took a cookie anyhow.

He felt like having a little fun with her, so he waited till she had a mouthful of cookie to ask his question. “So what was the previous record?”

Darcy started to laugh, then cough, and he had to pass her a glass of water before she could reply. “I bet you didn’t think I’d have an answer. Six. And before you get all jealous or something, that was by myself.”

Realizing his mouth was open, he closed it. “Yeah?”

There was a rare hint of a blush on her cheeks. “I, uh… had a new toy, and I hadn’t gotten laid in a _long_ time, and I was bored. Decided to see… what was possible. What about you?” she added, taking another cookie.

“Don’t know that I ever counted.” When she gave him a skeptical look, he shrugged, a vague memory coming back to him: laying in a narrow bed in the sticky heat of a Brooklyn summer, blanket still over him in case anybody opened the door, trying to be oh-so-silent as he moved his hand on himself. “Wasn’t a lot of privacy, either at home or in the army. Not saying I never did it,” he added. “But it was mostly… get it over with and pray nobody walked in on you. And I don’t know if I ever quite believed that _girls_ did that sort of thing too.”

“And what _did_ the girls do?” She turned half-sideways and draped her legs over his lap, and by reflex his right hand came to rest on her thigh, just above her knee. “I’m honestly curious. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go beat up some hundred-year-old ladies just because you rocked their world back in the day. Come on, I know things weren’t as wild back then, but you’re not going to tell me you weren’t Brooklyn’s leading lady-killer.”

“I don’t remember all the details. Stop poking me,” he told her, grabbing her hand before she could do it again. “I’m being honest, doll. I had lots of dates, I remember some faces, some names, but I don’t know if I could list ‘em all out for you. Lot of those were going out dancing, going to Coney Island… back then if you got a kiss at the end of the night, you were doing well.”

“How about when you did _really_ well?”

He laughed. “Sometimes… some girls were up for getting a little adventurous. I did learn to get pretty good with my hands. Some girls did, too. Although…”

Darcy raised her eyebrows. “Although?”

Red hair and a yellow dress; those came back to him before his brain retrieved the name. “There was one girl, Helen, god… she got me wound up.”

“I hate her already.” But she was grinning.

“First time a woman really put her hands on me. I was eighteen, she'd already let me get my hand up her dress, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.” Shaking his head, he laughed. “So almost as soon as she touched me, I was gone. And she… I guess she didn’t know that that’s… how guys work. She… kinda shrieked and ran out on me. Fuck, I’d almost forgotten all that.”

Darcy brought a hand up to his cheek. “Oh, my sweet gorgeous boy,” she said, as if he was still that eighteen-year-old. “Her loss. I’m sure you were hot as hell even then.”

“Hey, that was pretty good for those days. Most girls were waiting for a ring on their finger – couldn’t blame them, back then. I knew a few guys who got their girls in trouble, had to get married real young, so the couple of chances I did get, I was sure to be careful.”

“Just a couple?”

“One girl before the war, we went steady for a little while. And then… three? Three, I think, in Europe.”

“Ah.” Darcy started running her hand through his hair. “So it was some European ladies who taught you so well.”

“Oh, sweetheart. C’mere.” He pulled her onto his lap properly. “There’s so little to tell. If I’m any good at any of this, that’s because of you. You and me. I had some fun back then, but even if it wasn’t so long ago it still wouldn’t even be worth remembering. You’ve ruined me for anybody else.”

She did her fake-mad face. “Hey. That’s my line.”

It was true, though. Even if he hadn’t been so thoroughly taken apart and broken in the interim, even if he’d grown up in more modern, freer times, he couldn’t imagine anyone holding a candle to her. “Feeling’s mutual, doll.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Why is it Wednesday?”

Darcy had addressed the question to Alpine, meaning for it to be rhetorical, but she’d forgotten about super-soldier hearing; Bucky popped his head out from the bathroom, still rubbing a towel over his hair. “What about Wednesday?”

With a sigh, Darcy eyed the carafe of the coffeemaker and wondered how ridiculous it would be to just take the whole thing to the lab with her. Having the previous day off to spend with Bucky after his mission had been entirely glorious, but it hadn’t involved more than the absolute bare minimum of sleep, and her body was feeling it – not to mention assorted other rather pleasant aches and pains. Of course Bucky looked fresh as the proverbial daisy, the bastard. “Ugh, just not feeling… work today. Too tired, and one day off isn’t enough after you were away so long.”

Shifting the towel to wrap it – somewhat precariously – around his waist, Bucky came over and kissed her forehead. “I know, doll. You’ll feel better once you get some coffee in you. I’ve got a ton of stuff waiting for me, too, but maybe I can catch you for lunch?”

She wrapped her arms around his waist. “That’d be all kinds of awesome. I’d better hit the road, before a certain hot naked guy gives me other ideas and gets me in trouble.”

“Mmm, don’t tempt me, sweetheart. Go on, then.” Letting her go, he put the lid on the carafe, put it in her hand, and gave her a gentle swat on the ass. “Go to work, before I make you late.”

When she shuffled into the science wing a few minutes later, she bumped into Dr. Banner on his way out of Jane’s lab. “Late night?” he asked, looking amused.

“Not a word, Big Green, not a word,” she warned, though she smiled at him as they passed in the doorway. “Honestly, people already doing science before nine in the morning,” she muttered, after the door closed behind her. “Goddess give me strength.”

“What, you mean you weren’t _dying_ for my company today?” Jane asked, setting some kind of circuit board down on a workbench and smirking at her. “Seriously, though, how’s Bucky?”

“Delicious,” Darcy replied, waggling her eyebrows as she sat down in her chair. Eyeing the mug she’d left on her desk two days before, she decided she’d better find a cleaner one for her coffee. “He’s good. Not a scratch. Fuck, I’m so glad he’s home.”

After a suitable amount of caffeine, she fell into the rhythm of the workday easily enough, though a notification from her calendar app distracted her a little before noon. “Fuck, what have I forgotten,” she muttered to herself, before seeing that it was just an upcoming reminder and not a missed appointment or meeting. But seeing what the reminder was made her curse again, a little louder – enough that it actually distracted Jane from the calculations she was working through on the whiteboard.

“What’s wrong?”

Darcy exhaled. “Ugh. Nothing really, just a reminder that I’m due for a physical in a month. And I don’t have a doctor since we moved here.”

“There’s a whole medical wing full of them.” Jane shrugged, as if Darcy was being dense.

“I mean… I _know_ , but do they actually do, like, regular doctor stuff? I mostly need to re-up my birth control.”

“Sure, why wouldn’t they? I mean, it’s not like Wanda or Bruce or whoever are going to go to the local town GP.” Jane turned back to the white board, added a couple more scribbles to her formula, but then turned Darcy’s way again. “Didn’t you say you use the implant? Isn’t that like, a couple of years at a time?”

“So?”

Jane shrugged, but a little too casually. “Nothing. It’s not my business, just wondered, since you’re getting married and all, whether you’d thought about, you know, changing it or whatever.”

“What about you and Thor?” Darcy asked. It wasn’t the most subtle of ways to deflect away from Jane’s question, but it was worth a try. “He wanted you to marry him before, didn’t he? Queen of Asgard and all that? A flock of huge blond children?”

From the awkward look on Jane’s face, it seemed like maybe the diversion had worked. “Well, not Queen of Asgard anymore. I don’t know. Things are… pretty good now, but I want to see if this can last. If he can actually be happy with a home base here instead of out in space somewhere… then maybe.”

“Well, your only remaining potential in-law is already living with you, so…”

A text notification sounded and she turned away from the conversation to see Bucky’s name on her screen. _Don’t have much time for lunch but could meet in the canteen in 10 if you’re free._

_Perfect. Be right there._ She hit send, then stuck her phone in her pocket. “I’m gonna grab lunch. You want me to bring you back anything?”

“Enchiladas if they’ve got them today,” Jane replied. “Otherwise a chicken sandwich. Oh, and Darce?” she added.

Darcy turned, almost out the door. “Yeah?”

It was rare that Jane directed all her focus Darcy’s way, there was usually a look in her eyes of figuring out an equation or something in the background. But sometimes she homed in like a laser, and this was one of those times. “If you and Barnes haven’t talked about kids yet, you should probably do it. Before you make that doctor’s appointment.”

Bucky could be silent as a cat, but it didn’t take much for him to sneak up on her in the noise of the canteen; she was busy eyeing the menu choices when suddenly his arm was snaking around her, his cheek nuzzling her ear. “No enchiladas today?”

“Well, hello to you too,” she laughed. “And no. Lasagna, though.”

“Suits me.” He set a tray down beside hers, giving her a little breathing room but keeping his free hand lightly on the small of her back. She loved the point of contact, the reminder of his presence, but she knew it served a dual purpose for him: not just the simple pleasure of touching her, but also a sign of the hypervigilance that he’d probably never completely lose.

For the same reason, she let him take the seat that had the better sightlines around the room. He was always a little more on-alert when he was transitioning back out of mission mode. “How soon do they need you back?”

Bucky frowned. “Twenty minutes, probably. It’s gonna be a long day, and then Thor’s on my back for me to spar with him later.”

Jane’s voice was echoing annoyingly around in Darcy’s head – annoying, because she knew Jane was right – but twenty minutes in the canteen certainly wasn’t the time to go anywhere near _that_ conversation. “You should hit the gym with him. From the look on your face, you’re probably gonna need to get it out of your system by the end of the day.”

“And if he beats me up, are you gonna kiss it better?” he asked, scrunching up his nose as he grinned at her.

And _damn._ Because she honestly had never given much thought to kids one way or the other, and it wasn’t like all of a sudden some clock was ticking because Jane had brought it up, but there was something so open and unguarded about that smile that suddenly she was imagining – at least in an abstract way – what it might look like replicated on a little face, and the weight of that subject was one that she had no idea how to dig into. Shoving it to the back of her mind, she smiled back. “You don’t need to get beat up for that to happen.”

He brushed his thumb over the back of her hand. “That’s my girl.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first two-thirds or so of this chapter is just purely from the "I couldn't resist this mental image" file, I beg your indulgence...

It had been a long day. A stifling sort of day, almost completely spent in meetings and in front of screens and reviewing intel and a bunch of other stuff that was all productive, all important, and nothing particularly bad, but it had all involved sitting in rooms and being surrounded by people with their attention on him. And Bucky was getting better at that sort of thing, but it still never came easy, especially not after nearly six weeks of solo ops. So by the time he hit the locker room and changed into a t-shirt and gym shorts, he was itching to move, itching to hit something.

The gym was empty, so he started through a series of punches and kicks on the heavy bag. Like everything in the facility, it was reinforced to stand up to what the enhanced members of the team could dish out; even so, he nearly sent it off its chains with a couple of left crosses once he got going. Darcy was good for him – she calmed his nerves, grounded him, helped him paper over the still-healing cracks in his brain, and god knew that the sex was a hell of an outlet – but there were always going to be some things best worked out by taxing his body on the running track or the gym floor.

Thor had become his favourite training partner, partly for the Asgardian techniques that Bucky could learn from, but also because the God of Thunder was taller, had a longer reach, and was pretty near indestructible: a legitimate challenge. And so when Bucky heard the familiar heavy tread approaching the doors, he turned with a smile – only to blink in surprise when Loki followed Thor in like a reluctant shadow.

“I convinced Loki to come and train as well,” Thor announced, loudly and unnecessarily.

It was Bucky’s first time seeing Loki outside a cell, but it sounded like he hadn’t given Darcy any trouble in the last few weeks. “Hey,” Bucky said, keeping his voice neutral.

There was a brief flash of something across Loki’s face, like he hadn’t expected to be acknowledged and didn’t quite know what to do with it, but he gave a quick nod before stalking to the opposite end of the gym. Remembering all too well what it felt like to be the elephant in the room himself, Bucky decided to leave Loki to his own devices, and turned his attention to Thor, who was already reaching for the weapons rack. The gym had already been stocked with practice knives and various sizes of wooden staffs in addition to the usual weights and cardio equipment, but not long after Thor’s arrival a set of dulled-edge swords had materialized. And though he didn’t foresee ever taking one into the field, Bucky had been the first one game to join Thor in training with them. He told himself that it was good for reaction time, and that any fighting style that existed was something he should probably have in his arsenal, but he’d privately admitted to Darcy that it also just made him feel like he was about eight years old again, him and Steve battling it out with broom and mop handles like they were the Knights of the Round Table.

“It’s like that, is it?” Bucky asked, skipping the smaller swords in favour of one of the big two-handed models, close to five feet long.

Thor already held a similar weapon. “Of course it is. Let’s see if you’ve gotten rusty after being away so long.”

If anything, it felt like the long break from this kind of sparring had let his brain work some of it out; it felt easier than he remembered, and in the course of a half-hour or so he actually managed to get the advantage a few times, despite Thor’s superior experience and reach. After a while, though, he heard his phone from the bench where he’d set it down. “Hang on a sec,” he said, setting the sword down. Seeing Darcy’s text, he laughed. “Hey, apparently Jane needs you for something for a minute. And Darcy says you should get a phone already.”

Ignoring the phone comment, Thor excused himself. “And don’t think you get away with ending here. I’ll be back to thrash you in a few minutes.”

When Thor left the gym, Bucky was about to pick up the sword again, practice a few moves, when a movement in his peripheral reminded him that Loki was still in the room – casually and almost silently throwing knives at a target at the far end of the gym. Always curious about anyone else’s knife tactics, Bucky took a few steps closer. They weren’t the dulled throwing knives from the gym’s selection, but a set of gleaming, elegant daggers. Bucky had a feeling that Nick Fury probably didn’t know that the erstwhile God of Mischief was walking around the compound armed, but Loki wasn’t making any effort to hide the fact at the moment. One question did make Bucky open his mouth, though. “Now, I know the scanners they put you through when you got here would have picked _those_ up.”

Loki raised an eyebrow, but kept his focus on the target and threw again, as casually as if he were playing darts. “I keep them in a pocket dimension,” he replied, just when Bucky had almost decided he wasn’t going to get an answer. “Magic. Took me a while to recover enough to be able to access them again.”

The answer might have thrown Bucky for a loop, if he didn’t already know Wanda. “And you’re not worried about how people around here are gonna react to you having… what, half a dozen knives on you?”

With a flick of his hand, Loki caused the daggers to disappear from the target, and reappear on the ledge by his side. “Trust me, Sergeant Barnes, there is no one here who doesn’t assume worse of me on a daily basis. They would be foolish not to.”

A memory flashed back unbidden, but not one from the lost years: his shitty flat in Bucharest, with tactical teams closing in, Steve saying they weren’t planning to take him alive. His own voice, still feeling strange in English in those days: _Smart. Good strategy._ That moment when the first flicker of hope that there might be a way out was nearly overshadowed by a sick sense of something like relief that it might all just be over. “You include yourself in that list?”

Loki gave him what looked like a rueful smile. “That changes from moment to moment. For what it’s worth, I am sorry I involved your Darcy in what I believe I have overheard her referring to as… my bullshit.”

“Apologize to her, and if she accepts it, we’re square,” Bucky replied, one corner of his mouth twitching at the mental image of Darcy using that descriptor extra-loudly on purpose, to be overheard. And that thought just made him want to head home to her. “You gonna burn the place down if I leave before your brother gets back?”

“Not going to burn anything today, but I appreciate the question. Go ahead,” Loki added, tilting his head towards the pile of knives on the ledge. “Try them if you like, before you go.”

More than half wondering if this was some kind of a trick, Bucky took a step closer and reached out – with his left hand, just in case it _was_ something dangerous – and took hold of the nearest one. It was solid, definitely a dagger, and lighter than it looked. “Nice balance.” Squaring off to the target, Bucky flipped the first knife to his right hand, picked up a second, then sent them both into the bullseye in rapid succession. “I like them.”

Loki had a better poker face than most, but it wasn’t perfect. “Well. My brother wasn’t lying when he spoke about your knife skills. Perhaps there _are_ people worth training with here.”

“Not tonight,” Bucky replied. “But another time, sure.” Decided to head straight home and shower there, he picked up his phone off the bench and was almost out the door when Loki spoke again.

“Sergeant Barnes?” When Bucky turned, Loki sighed. “It is nice to be spoken to like a person, and not avoided like a demon. Thank you. It’s been a while.”

“Been there. And call me Bucky.”

On his way back to the apartment, he debated the conversation, whether anyone else at the compound would have accepted what seemed like an olive branch from the God of Mischief, and extended their own in return. All Bucky knew was how important it had been when a few people had done the same for him.

He was going to tell Darcy about it, get her thoughts on the whole thing, but when he walked in the door he could feel tension about a foot thick in the room. Darcy was in the kitchen, but not cooking – something was already out of the oven, looking like it was ready – and not blasting music and dancing like he sometimes caught her doing. Instead, she was fussing around with little things, her movements jittery, her lower lip caught between her teeth, and she just about jumped out of her skin when the door closed behind him.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, keeping his voice soft as he quickly kicked off his shoes. Stepping into the kitchen, he laid his flesh hand against her cheek. “What’s wrong?”

Darcy blinked at him. “What? No, nothing. Perfect timing, dinner’s just ready.” Coming up on her tiptoes, she kissed him, but he could feel how tightly she was wound.

“Are you sure, doll?” He draped his arms around her waist, keeping her close but trying not to crowd her. There had been a time, back at the start, when he might have thought she was nervous of him, but he was long past those fears. If something bad had happened in the lab, something with work, she probably would have hit him with it right away, or texted him to vent her complaints. If she was just overcaffeinated, she definitely would’ve been dancing around the kitchen. “You seem kind of… wired. Did I do something wrong?”

That got her attention. “No. God, no.” She licked her lips and took a deep breath. “Fuck, it’s just… I realized today that there’s some stuff we haven’t really talked about yet, that we need to, and I’m just… I’m kind of the queen of avoiding those big conversations, you know? And so I thought I’d put my big girl pants on and just, you know, make a nice dinner and we can talk about this shit like grownups, but now I’m all up in my own head about it and…”

She trailed off, leaving his mind going a mile a minute and his stomach sinking down to somewhere near the floor. “What kind of stuff?”

“Nothing bad, nothing like that, I mean. God. You and me, we’re good. You’re fucking perfect.” Her words were tumbling out faster and faster. “It’s just… we’re gonna get married, and we never… I mean, I never even asked…” Screwing her eyes closed for a second, she sucked in a long breath before looking up at him with a nervous sort of grimace on her face. “Do you want to have kids?”

“I… Jesus.” Did he? A million years ago when that would have been a reasonable question, he’d never given it much thought, just assumed that someday he’d settle down with a girl and all the logical next steps would unfold. These days he was honestly still getting used to the fact that he was a whole person again. But what if Darcy wanted them? What if their future was dependent on his answer? What if it wasn’t even a theoretical question? The room felt too quiet and too loud at the same time all of a sudden, though the loud noise was just the rushing of blood against his eardrums. “Do you?”

“Fuck, I don’t know.” She leaned her forehead against his chest. “See?” she said, muffled against his sweaty gym shirt. “I suck at this adult stuff. But I just realized that I _didn’t know_ because it never came up, and I thought… well, Jane kind of kicked my ass… I figured we should probably at least know if we have an answer to that, or whatever.”

He couldn’t help it; he started to laugh. He didn’t even know why. Maybe just relief that so far, it seemed like this wasn’t a test that he’d failed. “Oh, love. I think I suck at this too. C’mon, let’s sit down and eat and talk about it.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which decisions are made...

Dinner was a bit of a distraction, but Darcy wasn’t sure if she was glad of it or not. It felt a bit like she’d pulled up a corner of a bandage but not yet ripped it all the way off, and she wasn’t quite sure how to resume the conversation, or where to take it. Thankfully, after helping himself to seconds of chicken and rice, Bucky did it for her. “So why did this suddenly come up today?” he asked, his brow furrowed. “You’re not…”

She was just taking a sip of water as he asked, and she nearly spat it out as she caught his meaning. “No! No. Nothing like that. No, I just… my calendar reminded me that I’m due for a doctor checkup in the next couple of weeks or so, and I’d normally be due to re-up my birth control implant thingy. I mentioned it to Jane, and she was like ‘are you sure?’. And kind of read me the riot act when she figured out we hadn’t really talked about it. So, I mean… if nothing else, I guess one question is whether I should go for another round of something that lasts a couple years at a time.”

“But you would have, otherwise.” His tone didn’t give anything away, which usually meant he was purposely trying to stay neutral.

“I… Honestly, I’ve been on birth control since I was old enough to need it, even though I’ve had some long dry spells. I am _diligent_ about it. You’re the first guy I’ve ever been with where I didn’t also insist on condoms, because, well, I knew you hadn’t had another partner in my lifetime, at least, and you’re kind of guaranteed to be disease-free with the whole super-soldier thing and all. Fuck, I’m rambling.” She shook her head, but at least Bucky was smiling at her. “I guess what I’m trying to say is most of my life, kids weren’t even something on my radar. I wasn’t ever, like, dead set against them, but it never seemed like a _now_ thing. But… it kind of hit me today that a lot of those things like ‘I’ll think about it after I get my degree’ and ‘I’ll think about it when I’m with someone I love’ and ‘I’ll think about it when I’ve got a good job’ and ‘I’ll think about it when I’m older’… that’s all now, isn’t it? I’m… fuck. I don’t even really know how old I am, you know. With the whole five year blip thing? Do I say thirty-eight or thirty-three?”

Bucky set his fork down and put his hand over hers. “Doll, you’re talking to a guy who’s a hundred and seven on paper,” he said, running his thumb back and forth over her skin. “And I never thought much about it either. Before the war, it was just the normal sequence of things. I figured sometime after it was all done, I’d meet somebody, settle down.” He was looking down at their hands now, his voice hushed. “And then… well. I still think I’m dreaming most of the time, to have what we have, after everything I’ve been through.”

There was a long pause after that, so long that Darcy wanted to scramble to find words to fill it, but before she could think of any, he spoke again. “It’s not that I haven’t thought about it. Having a family. How it’d be to… to see you holding a baby.” His head was still bent, but his eyes flicked up to meet hers for a moment. “And then I remember what I do. Who I am. The fact that even in a few years when I don’t legally _have_ to any more, this is probably always gonna be the safest place for us to live. The fact that I don’t even know if I could make it happen, even if I wanted to, between age and cryo and all… all the ways I’ve been messed with, experimented on.”

She couldn’t stand having the table between them anymore; getting out of her chair, she came around to his side, and perched on his lap when he pushed his chair back. “Bucky, I don’t need any of that,” she told him, reaching her hand up to his face.

Pulling her in closer, he turned to kiss her palm. “I don’t either. I just need you. But…”

“But…?”

“I don’t know. All those reasons why it’d be crazy, or maybe impossible, those are all real. But for a minute there, when I thought maybe you were asking because you were… That wasn’t a bad feeling.”

That moment earlier in the day when she’d had the fleeting thought of what a little one with some of Bucky’s features might look like – that hadn’t been a bad feeling either. “So, what we’re saying is that we are a very firm maybe?” she asked, almost breaking into nervous laughter.

“I guess what I’m saying…” He dug his teeth into his lower lip for a second before continuing. “It’s up to you, Darcy. But if you went to that doctor’s appointment and decided _not_ to get that prescription refilled… I wouldn’t be sad about it.”

“Just… leave that door open?”

“Only if you want to.”

She looked into his eyes, thinking about all the things he’d said, all the reasons why it might be a crazy idea. If she’d asked anyone’s opinion in the beginning, she had a feeling that some people could have come up with a similar list of why dating the former Winter Soldier might have sounded like a crazy idea too. Bucky probably would have provided a list himself. Fate and her gut hadn’t steered her wrong so far. “Yeah,” she replied, a little surprised that her voice didn’t waver. “Yeah, I want to. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, but if it did…” She shrugged. “The world could use a little more of you, if you ask me. And don’t you dare argue with me,” she added, when he looked like he was about to open his mouth.

“Still think you’re crazy to want me, sweetheart.” He said it lightly. “But that wasn’t what I was gonna say. All this talk is making me realize we’ve got another thing to figure out.”

“What’s that?”

With his metal thumb, Bucky pushed against the stone in Darcy’s ring, slowly rotating it round her finger. “I know it’s partly because I was away so long, but we haven’t really talked about when we’re going to do this. The actually-getting-married part.”

“Feels like we’d better not get too attached to any particular plans, or knowing my luck you’d get sent on another six-week mission. Don’t worry, I know it’s not your fault,” she added, before he could start beating himself up. “It’s not like Fury gives you much warning.”

He made a face. “Yeah. I know I’m off the roster till the end of next weekend, but a few months out? Depends who tries to blow the world up next.”

Darcy sat up straighter, an idea grabbing hold of her and not letting go. “Next weekend.”

“What about it?”

“Let’s… let’s get married next weekend. Or… next Friday, so we can have the weekend to ourselves. You know, as long as the world doesn’t blow up and all that.”

He tilted his head back and laughed. “You’ve gotta be joking.”

She was laughing too, but not because it was a joke. “Why not? I’m not that hung up on the wedding part, I just want to be married to you. I’m sure there’s gotta be somebody here with the authority to officiate, and anybody I really need standing up with us is here. Easier to tell my parents afterwards that we eloped, than trying to get clearance for them and explaining… how nuts this place is. I mean, they know I work for the Avengers these days, but I don’t think they quite get it.”

Bucky’s face turned serious. “Do they know who I am?”

“They do, but it’s okay. You have to understand, my parents decided years ago that the news was too depressing to keep up with. They’d heard your name but couldn’t remember where from. I explained that you were controversial because of some things you’d been forced to do while you were a POW, and that you’d been given immunity for all of it, and you work with the Avengers. They asked if you made me happy, I said yes, and then they started telling me about their golf game.” She shook her head. “Honestly, given their attention span, that was a perfectly honest thumbnail summary. I do want them to meet you. But I don’t need them here for our wedding. Not the way I need Jane here, or Thor or Bruce or Wanda or Sam or… you get the idea.”

“You really want to get married next week?”

“Why not? It’s enough time to get the license and tell everybody to be there and figure out something to wear – but honestly, I’d marry you in pajamas, I’m not even bothered about that.”

“Doll, given that the most I’ve ever seen you sleep in is one of my shirts with nothing underneath, I’m thinking we might not want an audience for that,” he replied, his right hand moving down to curve around her ass.

In response, she shifted around so she was straddling him on the chair instead of perching on his knee. “Well, given that the most I’ve seen _you_ sleep in are some of those boxer-briefs that leave absolutely zero to the imagination, maybe I wanna show off what a hot piece of ass I’m marrying, hmm?”

“Oh, sweetheart, you do know how to make a guy feel good.” He was laughing, like what she’d said was a joke, but Darcy felt a little sense of victory at getting him to kinda-sorta almost take a compliment for once, instead of telling her she was nuts, or that she had it backward.

Licking her lips – and watching how his eyes followed the gesture – she shifted her hips in closer, his gym shorts doing nothing to hide his body’s response to that. “Oh, I haven’t even started yet.”


	9. Chapter 9

He was still in his sweaty gym clothes, but if Darcy didn’t mind, neither did he. “Sounds like maybe we should move this to the bedroom,” he suggested, tilting his chin down so he could nuzzle against her skin where the top button of her blouse was undone.

“Who says we need to move anywhere?” she asked, rocking her hips against him. “Chair’s pretty solid.” As if to punctuate the suggestion, she leaned back and started undoing her top.

With a huff of laughter, he helped her push it back off her shoulders. “Don’t have to ask me twice.” When she got eager like this, like she couldn’t have him soon enough, it made his head spin. A beautiful girl climbing into his lap and tearing her clothes off: it had been a defining theme of his fantasies, decades in the past, and now not only was she his present, she was his future. When her shirt hit the floor, he pulled her close for a kiss, making it filthy right from the start, licking into her mouth as he unfastened her bra, his fingers tracing the slight groove the band left imprinted on her skin before bringing his hands round to cup her breasts.

Darcy tugged at the hem of his shirt, and made a noise that might have been the word ‘off’ if he hadn’t been so busy kissing her. Tearing himself away just long enough to get rid of his shirt and shorts, he sat back down and pulled her close, his face just at her chest level so that it was easy, inevitable, that his mouth went there, his tongue teasing round her right nipple while his fingers took care of the left. “Trying… to take my skirt off here,” she gasped.

“Mmm,” he replied, barely taking his mouth off her. “Can’t help it.” But as the skirt dropped to the floor, he did run a hand down and help tug her panties down and off. “Jesus, doll, look at you.” The comment spilled out of his mouth almost by reflex as she climbed back on top of him, the brighter light from the kitchen backlighting her with a halo like his own goddamn angel.

“God, Bucky. You make me feel beautiful.”

“Oh, sweetheart. It’s because you are. It’s nothing I’m doing.” He lifted her hand to kiss her palm, then pulled her into a proper kiss as his hands roamed lower, sliding fingers between her thighs. She was already so wet, and a second later she had her hands on him, lifting herself up to sink down onto his cock, taking him in one long slide that had him moaning into her mouth. The position meant letting her be in charge, and she kept it slow and sweet till finally he couldn’t take the teasing pace any longer. With his right arm wrapped round her back and his left hand cupped under her ass, he stood up.

She gasped, and wrapped her legs round his waist as he leaned her up against the closest wall. “God, I fucking love that you have super-strength,” she laughed, all breathless against his ear.

“Woulda done this with you even without it,” he growled in her ear as he snapped his hips into her. He was pretty sure he could have managed this any time, but he had to admit, he loved that it was effortless, loved that Darcy had told him once that it made her feel tiny and delicate in a good kind of a way. The fact that anybody had ever made her feel anything less than perfect – it was insane, as far as he was concerned. “You drive me crazy.”

Darcy tilted her head back against the wall. “You love it.”

She had that right. “Luckiest man in the goddamn world.” He could feel her starting to shake, knew that she was close. “Let go for me, doll. I’ve got you.” Raising his right hand, he slid a finger over her lower lip – though when she captured it and sucked, her cheeks hollowing out, it almost ended him then and there – and then brought it down to circle around her clit. “Feel good, sweetheart?”

“Bucky, I…” It ended in a groan, as he felt her body tense and then dissolve around him – and not a moment too soon, because he was right there with her.

As the aftershocks subsided, he eased her down to standing, keeping his arms wrapped round her. Just when he was about to suggest that maybe they move things to the shower and get cleaned up, Darcy started to laugh, a little giggle that she couldn’t seem to suppress. “What’s so funny, doll?”

“Just…” It took her a minute to be able to answer. “I was just… so nervous about having this big grownup conversation, and did _not_ think it was going to progress straight to wall sex.”

He found himself laughing along with her. “To be fair, it was the chair first.”

“We are the _best_ at grownup conversations. Yay us.” Still laughing, she leaned her forehead against his chest. “Fuck, I love you.”

“Love you too, doll. C’mon, let’s clean up and go to bed.”

It was early to bed, but later by the time they got to sleep. Later still when Bucky woke up, drenched in sweat, his heart trying to pound out of his chest. He was home. Darcy was beside him. She was breathing. Those three things took the immediate panic down by just a notch, but not enough. The next step was a more detailed inventory: no unusual sounds, nothing out of place, no alerts on his phone. Getting out of bed, he silently prowled through the apartment and found everything just as they’d left it the night before, and a check on the AI confirmed that nothing was out of the ordinary.

He stopped in the kitchen and forced himself to drink a glass of water, then ran through the five steps, five senses trick that he used to ground himself when panic attacks struck. It did keep him just this side of shutting down, let him go back to the bedroom and get back under the covers beside his girl like a civilized person, but he couldn’t settle, couldn’t lose the sense of unease. _Some kind of nightmare_ , he told himself. _Just as well not to remember it._ _Just calm the fuck down and go back to sleep._

Lecturing himself did about as much good as it ever did. Instead, he lay awake, acutely aware of how fucked-up it was that he was up at four in the morning completely rattled and paranoid because of a dream, like a damn three-year-old. And the dark thoughts started piling up, as dark thoughts tend to do in the middle of the night: that he was a burden to Darcy, that she was tying herself to a lifetime of his broken bullshit, and dear god, how could he even be thinking about maybe bringing kids into the world when he was such a mess himself?

Around the time that the shakes set in, he felt a shift in the mattress and realized that Darcy was awake. “Hey,” she said softly, raising herself on one elbow and laying her small hand over his big metal one. “You with me?”

Bucky opened his mouth, but it took a couple of false starts before a sound came out. “I’m sorry.” He wasn’t even sure whether he meant for waking her up or for just existing.

“Don’t be. Hey, c’mon.” She nudged his shoulder. “Sit up a little.” When he did, she wriggled closer and propped herself up against the headboard, then guided him to lean back on her.

“I’ll crush you, sweetheart.”

“You won’t. You think I don’t know exactly what the weight of that body feels like by now? Please.” When he did what she asked and leaned back, his head against her shoulder, she wrapped her arms round him. “You’re home, you’re safe, I’m here, and I love you. Does this feel okay?”

“Yeah.” He knew she could feel him shaking; it wasn’t like it was the first time. But her touch was helping him anchor himself down.

“Good. Just breathe with me for a minute, okay?”

He could feel the rise and fall of her chest against his back, could hear her slow inhale and exhale, and forced himself to match it. As he did so, the trembling started to subside, and he could feel his heartrate starting to calm down. A few seconds later, Alpine hopped up from the floor to land on him, and turned a couple of circles before settling down on his lap, her loud purr helping to drown out the pulse that was still a little too loud against his eardrums.

After a while, Darcy broke the silence again. “Do you remember what it was?”

“No. I mean… no.” He cleared his throat, trying to find his voice a little more. “Must’ve been a dream, but I don’t remember it.”

“We were figuring out a lot of big heavy stuff tonight. Your brain was probably working on it, trying to pick holes in things. It’s okay, babe,” she added, before he could say anything. “I know even the good stuff is tough to process sometimes.”

“I fuckin’ hate it,” he replied, curling his fingers in Alpine’s fur. “Doing this to you.” He laid his free hand over one of hers. “It’s not… I’m not having second thoughts. I want everything we talked about. Just…”

She kissed his temple, then rested her cheek against his hair. “I know. I mean, god, I’m a little freaked out too. But listen, when I said I’d marry you – hell, when I said I’d be your girlfriend, even – I meant all of you, not just on your best days. And I know you know that, even if your brain is an asshole sometimes and tries to tell you otherwise.”

She had a way of hitting the nail on the head, crude descriptions and all. “I do know that, sweetheart.”

“And you know it’s not like, ‘oh, he’s great except for this thing’, right? I mean, I’d like to personally kill everyone who’s ever hurt you, but the fact that you’ve got trauma… it’s just part of you. This is the only you that I’ve ever known – this amazing human right here – and I love all your parts, okay?”

He drew in a breath, wanting to respond, but found that he didn’t trust his voice; instead, he just nodded, teeth digging into his lower lip.

“And the kids thing… if it happens,” Darcy continued, her voice a little softer. “I mean, that’s scary as hell for anybody, I think. If it happens, we’ll just figure it out as we go. That’s all anybody can do.”

“What if they’re…” He suddenly knew, in shaping the words, what had woken him up in the night, or at least a big part of it. “All this, it changed my DNA. What if… what if they turned out like me?”

Darcy tensed a little, but tightened her arms around him. “James. Buchanan. Barnes. Do you have any idea how _thrilled_ I will be if our kids turn out like you? Tall, smart, gorgeous, perfect vision? And seriously, if it’s somehow genetic that they turn out part super soldier, it doesn’t mean they have to _be_ super soldiers. Just means they’d have an athletic edge and great immunity. It’s a fucking win-win, as far as I’m concerned. And if our kids grow up more aware of mental health than some, if they see that Daddy makes time to talk shit out and deal with what’s going on in his head… that’s a good thing.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t process everything she said, but part of his brain had started going double-time hearing her talk about kids, hearing that she’d thought it all through, and then shorted out entirely at the word ‘daddy’. “Sounds like you’ve got this all figured out,” was all he managed to say, but he felt like his heart was swelling up in his chest in a good way this time.

“Only the important parts.” Darcy laughed, though he felt it more than heard it, and kissed the side of his head again. “You think you’re the only one not getting a perfect night of sleep tonight? I’ve got lots of questions running through my head too – and the kids thing, if it doesn’t happen, that’s cool too. But two things that I’ve got absolutely no question in my mind about are that marrying you is gonna be the smartest thing I ever do in this life, and that if I ever do have kids, you’re the only one I’d ever want to do that with. And god, Bucky, if it happens, you will be the _best_ father. And not in spite of who you are, but _because_ of who you are. And anybody who says otherwise – including you – is gonna have to answer to me, alright?”

A couple of tears were escaping down his cheeks, but he didn’t try to hide it as he shifted around so that they were side by side and he could see her face. “Sounds like I’d better smarten up before I get myself in trouble.”

Darcy was beaming at him, but her eyes weren’t dry either. “Damn right you’d better.”


	10. Chapter 10

“Darcy, stop checking the weather and just log off. This can all wait till next week.”

At the sound of Jane’s voice, Darcy took a deep breath and turned around in her desk chair. “Doctor Jane Foster, saying that work can wait till next week? Do I need to take your temperature? Are you feeling dizzy?”

Jane made a face. “Okay, I know I’m a bit of a workaholic, but there are a few things that I am capable of pausing for. My best friend getting married tomorrow is one of them. And it’s _not_ going to rain on you. If all else fails, Thor can sort it out.”

_Married tomorrow. Married tomorrow._ It had been echoing in Darcy’s head all day. “I know. I just… I keep thinking dumbass things like ‘this is my last workday as a single woman’, and it’s… It’s not that I’m nervous, I’m so fucking excited, it’s just…”

“It’s a little surreal, right?”

Darcy looked up to see Pepper in the lab doorway. “Yes. Thank you, Pepper, that’s exactly it. Surreal. I mean, my life’s been pretty surreal since I decided to take an astrophysics internship, but somehow this is simultaneously the most normal and yet the weirdest milestone yet.”

Pepper looked a bit faraway for a second, but then smiled. “I married Tony Stark. Trust me, I know from surreal. Are you sure there’s nothing else you need, Darcy?”

“Are you kidding?” Upon hearing the news, Pepper had insisted on connecting Darcy with a dressmaker and booking someone to come on the day to do her hair and makeup, and apparently there was going to be food from some big-name Manhattan restaurant brought in as well. “You’ve done so much, Pepper. Thank you. I know this… can’t be easy for you.”

“Easier than you’d think. It’s good to see some joy around here. You’re sure there’s nothing else?”

“ _Positive._ Just show up and look beautiful. Like you could look anything else,” Darcy replied.

Pepper laughed. “If you think of anything else, just let me know. And Darcy?” She paused. “I’m glad the two of you found each other. Tony would have been glad, too.”

Swallowing the sudden lump in her throat, Darcy nodded. “Thank you.”

After Pepper departed, Jane perched on the edge of Darcy’s desk. “And are you still planning to spend the night on your own tonight?”

“Yep. Honestly, it’s more about not seeing each other tomorrow morning before it all goes down,” Darcy replied. “I wouldn’t mind either way, I’m not superstitious, but Bucky kinda wanted this one old-fashioned thing.”

“The amount of complaining you do any time he’s away with the team, and you’re voluntarily spending a night apart when you don’t have to?” Jane asked. “Do I need to take _your_ temperature?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “I do have some self-control, you know. Not a lot, but some.”

The plan was, they were going to have dinner together and then Bucky would spend the night at Sam’s. He’d insisted that Darcy be the one to stay at the apartment, pointing out that at least Sam had a pullout couch, while the only other option for Darcy would have been the lumpy sofa at Jane’s place. They weren’t going on any kind of honeymoon; she knew that travelling together would carry some challenges, between who Bucky was and the hypervigilance he’d probably always have, and though they’d talked about trying it sometime in the future, she’d put her foot down about not adding any extra possible stress to what was meant to be a chill, laid-back wedding. So the little token separation, the bit of extra anticipation, was one way to set the day apart.

With all that in her mind, walking in their door felt oddly like showing up for a date: all the more so when she realized Bucky was cooking fettucine alfredo, the same thing he’d made for her on their first ‘real’ date. “Well, aren’t you a goddamn delight to come home to?” she asked, kicking off her sneakers and coming into the kitchen to give him a kiss.

“I do my best, doll. Watch out for a sec.” Sticking his right hand into an oven mitt, he drained the pasta and tossed it into the pan of sauce. “Go sit down, it’s just about ready, and I’m starving.”

She laughed, thinking of at least a few times when he’d said that and _not_ meant food. “Tease.”

Bucky blinked at her, clearly needing a second to realize what he’d said, then laughed. “Don’t get me started, sweetheart. I’m gonna need to pack up and get out of here right after dinner as it is, or I’ll never have the willpower.”

Taking pity on him – and herself – she changed the subject as they sat down to dinner. “So what are you guys going to do with your day tomorrow? Run a marathon and shoot stuff to blow off steam?” She was only partly kidding with the question; the ceremony wasn’t till four in the afternoon and she could well imagine him being fairly wound up by that time.

“I probably will go for a run, but I don’t want to go to the range tomorrow. I don’t wanna…” He shook his head. “I mean, you never know around here, but I’m hoping tomorrow is one day where I don’t have to think too much about what I do… most other days. Sam says he and the guys want to take me out for lunch. Some place where they’ve got a private back room, and they’re used to Banner, so it should be alright,” he added. “I guess they figure it’s the closest thing to a bachelor party.”

She could read between the lines, see that he’d never quite lose that hint of surprise that anybody wanted to do nice things for him. “Well, at least I don’t need to worry about you showing up hammered,” she joked. “Hopefully none of the rest of them are, either. Are there going to be strippers?” In truth, Sam had already given her a heads-up about the plan and she knew they were absolutely not going to spring anything like that on Bucky, but she couldn’t resist.

The look on his face didn’t disappoint. “What?! No! But I’m guessing you already knew that,” he added, when she started to laugh. “Besides, you know you’re the only one I want to see like that.”

He wasn’t the first man to say something like that to her, but he was the first one she’d ever believed. “Here we go onto dangerous territory again.”

“Can’t have that, can we?” But he licked his lips, the bastard. “Eat your dinner.”

After they ate and cleaned up, Bucky collected his bag and put it by the door, and there was a heavy pause while they just stared at each other. “Guess the next time I see you, I finally get to put a ring on that finger,” she said, stepping closer and taking his metal hand in hers. In truth, a conventional ring wasn’t going to work on his left hand, so they had chosen one for him to wear on the right, but he’d also told her he was going to talk to Shuri, see if there was a way to change the plating on his vibranium hand to give the appearance of a ring where a wedding band normally should be. Darcy ran her thumb around the base of his ring finger, then brought her hands up to the back of his neck, stepping closer to him. “I can’t wait.”

“Me either.” His arms went round her, hands spreading out on the small of her back. “Give me a kiss before I go.”

She knew she should try to make it just a sweet, chaste kiss and let him get out the door, but she couldn’t help opening her mouth on his, or the way her tongue wanted to slide over his lower lip almost of its own accord. Addiction wasn’t something that had ever really impacted her life, but kissing Bucky Barnes had a way of overriding any of her attempts at self-control. It was clear he felt much the same: a groan reverberated from his chest into her mouth as he pulled her closer and took control of the kiss, his hands drifting down to cradle her ass. She _really_ knew that she shouldn’t be leaning in against his groin, wriggling a little as she felt him getting hard for her. “Remind me why we thought this was a good idea?” she breathed, barely taking her mouth off his.

Bucky leaned his forehead on hers and bit his lip before replying. “Just one night, doll. It’ll be worth it tomorrow.”

It took all her willpower to keep her hands at the back of his neck and not let them wander lower. “You sure you want to head over to Sam’s right now? Full salute and all?”

He made a low sound in the back of his throat that sent a rush of heat between her thighs. “I am marrying a very bad girl.” There was a hint of a laugh in his voice. “Might need a minute in the bathroom before I go.”

“Fuck.” Because now she was picturing it, and wasn’t _that_ a mental image? “Wait. I’ve got a better idea.”

“Doll, we said we weren’t…”

“Not that. But seeing as we’re both in a state right now, and you need to do something before you go next door – and I wouldn’t last much longer than that either – why don’t we just…”

His eyes were wide and dark and laser-focused on her. “Just _what_ , sweetheart?”

“You look after you, and I look after me, just… we both know we’re gonna do it, so why not… together? If we’re across the room and not touching then we’re not breaking our ‘not-tonight’ plan, are we?”

“Jesus.” His metal hand tightened just a little on her ass, and she wondered if he even realized he was doing it. “This feels like using the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law here.”

She knew she was lawyering the hell out of this, but with or without him, if she didn’t get off soon she was going to go a little squirrelly. “Does that mean you don’t want to watch me?”

When he made a helpless, strangled sort of noise, she knew she had him. “ _Fuck._ Yeah. Yeah, I want to watch you.”

“C’mon, then.” Backing up a step, she took his hand and led him to their bedroom. After a second to consider the options, she pushed her clean laundry off the wooden chair in the corner. “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable there?”

She moved over to the bed, tugged off her dress, and turned to see him still standing by the door, looking a bit like a deer in headlights. “Is this okay?” she asked. When he nodded, mouth slightly open, she began taking off her bra and panties, trying to make a bit of a show of it, make it look good, feeling his eyes on her like floodlights. He knew every angle of her naked body, and had never made a secret of his admiration, but she’d never done anything quite like this for him before. Once she had everything off, she got on the bed, reclining back against the headboard so that she still had a good view of him. “Uh-uh,” she corrected, as he moved a hand down to palm himself through his pants. “I wanna see you too.”

He swallowed hard. “Jesus, doll,” he said, a little muffled as he pulled his shirt off over his head, and then repeated “ _Jesus,”_ as he got the shirt out of his face and saw that she was tracing circles round her nipples with her forefingers. She saw his hands fumble a little with his belt and his pants, and chalked that up as a win.

She knew every angle of his body, too, but he still took her breath away. “God, you’re gorgeous,” she breathed, letting her fingers move lower. “Do you know how many times I had to do this, thinking about you, when we first met?”

Bucky sat down hard in the chair. “Fuck,” he breathed. “Look at you.” His right hand went to his cock, his thumb smearing through the precome glistening at the tip before he started sliding his hand up and down his length. “The things I wanna do right now…”

“God, Bucky. I am going to _wreck_ you tomorrow night.” She slid two fingers inside herself, whining a little in frustration, wanting it to be him inside her instead, then moved her slick fingers up to circle round her clit.

“You’re wrecking me right now. Fuck.” He was moving faster, handling himself more roughly than Darcy ever had, and she could hear a hint of a whine with each gasping breath he took.

Spreading her legs wider, she used her other hand to hold herself open, let him really see everything as she moved her index finger faster, chasing her release, unable to help a moan when she got there. Breathless, she kept her eyes on him, watching him pump his fist up and down his cock until he broke her gaze to tip his head back, his whole body going taut for a moment before he gasped her name and held his hand still, making no attempt to contain the mess as pulse after pulse of come landed on his stomach and chest.

“Oh, this was a _good idea_ ,” she blurted out, not totally intending to say it out loud but glad she had. “We are totally going to do this again sometime.”

Bucky just made a noise that sounded like he was trying to laugh and catch his breath at the same time. “Next time _not_ from across the room,” he eventually managed, then looked down at himself and made a face. “Be right back, sweetheart.”

She heard the shower running as she pulled on some pajama bottoms and one of Bucky’s t-shirts, but he was only gone a couple of minutes. “You,” he said, bending down to collect his clothes and start pulling them back on.

“What about me?”

Once he was dressed, he pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “You are a world of trouble, Darcy Lewis.”

She couldn’t remember if he’d ever full-named her like that, the way she sometimes did to him, and it occurred to her that this would probably be the only time he’d do it with the name she’d been born with. “I’ll be Darcy Barnes about… oh… twenty hours from now.”

He laughed, but not like it was funny – more like the way a little kid laughs, just out of happiness – and it just about made her heart burst. “Damn right you will. And still trouble.”

“You love it.”

“I do.” He leaned down to kiss her mouth, but soft and sweet this time. “I’d better get out of here or I’m never gonna leave. I love you, sweetheart.”

“I love you too. See you tomorrow, gorgeous.”


	11. Chapter 11

“How you doing, man?”

Bucky fastened the final button of his shirt and looked up to see Sam in the doorway. “I’m good.” It was the truth. He hadn’t slept much, between anticipation and being away from his own bed, but the day had gone by quickly. And he knew he might still get hit with nerves when it was time to stand up in front of everyone, but with just over half an hour to go he was about as calm as he’d ever been. “For once in my life, I know I’m in the right place and doing exactly the right thing.”

Sam smiled. “And to think you were pissed at me for saying anything when she first gave you her number. Said she was just being nice to you.”

He knew Sam was absolutely right, but he flipped him off anyways, before focusing his attention on getting his tie on properly; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d worn one, but at least he managed it without having to ask for help. “You’ve got the ring, right?”

Patting his breast pocket, Sam nodded. “For the third time, yeah, I’ve got it. It’s going to be great.”

“Yeah, it is.” Bucky gave himself a once-over in the mirror, and had the rare experience of being pleased with what he saw. With a final deep breath, he pulled the suit jacket on. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

It was a perfect spring day, the temperature warm for early May, and the garden was full of colour and birdsong as they stepped outside. Someone had built a wooden arbor near where the garden beds gave way to grass, and people were gathered round it. Only twenty or so, only people they knew, but he still had to pause for a moment and take it in from a distance, the idea that there was a crowd of people who cared that this was happening.

Bucky turned as two pairs of quiet footsteps came up behind him. “There you are, White Wolf,” T’Challa said. “It is good to see you again. Particularly for such an occasion as this.”

“Where is she?” Shuri asked, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. “I have to meet the woman responsible for all this.” She gestured at Bucky with one hand, as if to suggest everything about him, from his haircut to the suit to the smile on his face. It wasn’t like she was wrong.

“Nobody’s supposed to see the bride till the ceremony,” he replied, letting that word echo around in his head a little. The bride. Darcy. _His_ bride. “Especially me.”

“And it’s nearly time, folks,” Sam added. “We’d better get ourselves in place, before the girls head down.”

The rumbling of conversation quieted down a little as they approached, and Bucky was clocking every detail – out of long-formed instinct, but also to try and sink every moment of the day into his memory: Clint holding out his hand for a high-five as Bucky passed, Morgan Stark balancing on the edge of a raised garden bed with the Barton kids, the unfamiliar sight of Maria Hill wearing a floral dress, Thor and Loki off to one side looking like a contrast between day and night, their parade-rest stance reminding him that they were soldiers too, of a sort.

Bruce stood at the front, towering over everyone, a book in his hands. Not a bible – he somehow had the legal authority to officiate a wedding, but he sure as hell wasn’t a priest or a minister, and Darcy hadn’t wanted that anyhow. Bucky didn’t mind either way, though in his head he’d said a little apology to his mother, that he wasn’t going to be married in a church. Given everything that his life had been, he was pretty sure that if his ma could see him now, she’d still be pleased. “You ready?” Bruce asked in a soft voice.

Bucky glanced at Sam beside him, squared his shoulders, and nodded. “Yeah.”

At that, Bruce nodded to Wanda, who flicked her fingers and sent a small ball of red light in the direction of the building, presumably to let Darcy and Jane know that everything was ready. And then everything got really quiet, except for the chirping of the birds and the thunder of Bucky’s heart in his chest. They’d talked about how the ceremony would go – short and simple – and the celebrations after. He knew that security was in place. He’d sure as hell thought – a lot – about getting her alone at the end of the night. The one thing he hadn’t really understood was how long these couple of minutes were going to feel, how much he would be aching for that first sight of her as a bride, even though he knew she wasn’t going to be in a big white dress and a veil.

Jane came out first, pretty in a pale purple dress that matched the flowers in her hands, and Bucky spared a quarter of a second to glance over and see the huge grin on Thor’s face. She gave Bucky a big smile, then took a place standing opposite him and Sam. And then there was the longest few seconds of Bucky’s life, before he saw Darcy.

She _was_ in a white dress. She hadn’t let him expect it, and he didn’t know why it hit him so hard, but it did. It was an old-fashioned dress, maybe not quite from his day but definitely not the twenty-first century either, more like pictures he’d seen from the nineteen-fifties: strapless and hugging her curves to her waist before opening out into a long full skirt that stopped between her knee and her ankle. Her hair fell in big movie-star waves around her shoulders, and she had a little spray of white flowers tucked behind one ear, and more of them in her hands. And she was walking slowly towards him like he was the only man in the world, like he _was_ the world.

His vision blurred a little as she got closer, and it wasn’t till he blinked that he realized it was tears. And then she was right there, her eyes looking a little misty too as she looked up at him. “Hi,” she whispered, not taking her eyes off him as she handed her flowers backwards to Jane.

There were a million things he wanted to say – how much he loved her, how beautiful she looked – but he couldn’t quite string the words together to do more than breathe “Hi” back at her as he took her hand.

“Welcome, everybody,” Bruce began. “It’s great to see everyone here today, and it’s my honor to be the one who gets to officiate the wedding for these two wonderful human beings, who are both part of what I like to think of as our big extended family. Darcy and Bucky, we love you guys, and I know you both wanted to keep it simple today, so we’ll get right to it.” Bucky could hear a soft ripple of laughter, and felt it almost bubbling up in his own chest as well.

“Marriage. It’s a beautiful thing, to see two people come together, making a commitment to each other that’s meant to last a lifetime.” Bruce focused his attention on the two of them. “And so the first step, before you make your vows to each other, is for you to declare your intent. Darcy, do you come here freely and without reservation, to give yourself to Bucky in marriage?”

“I do,” she replied, a huge smile on her face.

“Bucky, do you come here freely and without reservation, to give yourself to Darcy in marriage?”

“I do.” He’d been so worried about losing his voice that he said it louder than he meant to, and there was another little flurry of laughter when somebody – he thought it was probably Barton – called out ‘that’s right you do!’.

Bruce’s gaze went to the crowd for a second, then back on the two of them. “I will now ask you to declare your vows.”

Darcy went first, and though there was a little quiver in her voice, she spoke loud and clear. “Bucky, I take you to be my husband, and I promise to share my life with you, no matter where that takes us. I’ve told you before, but I’m telling you officially, in front of all these people, that I love every part of you, just as much on the tough days as the good ones, and I promise to stand by you, every day of my life.”

He squeezed her hands. This was happening. It was really happening. “Darcy, I take you to be my wife. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I promise that for the rest of my life, I will love you, support you, respect you, and never forget that I’m the luckiest man on earth to get to be your partner.” Pausing for half a second, he added, “And I promise to always be honest with you if I get shot, stabbed, or otherwise sent to medical.”

There was real laughter at that last bit, but he only had eyes for Darcy and the nearly-silent giggle that escaped her. Next up were the rings, and then they had to sign the marriage certificate, with Sam and Jane as their witnesses, and then came the part that Bucky was really waiting for.

“By the power vested in me by the State of New York,” Bruce said, a huge smile on his face, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

With his heart about ready to jump out of his chest, Bucky cupped Darcy’s beautiful face in his hands, bent down, and kissed her. It was soft and tender and if he opened his mouth on hers and tasted her tongue just a little – well, it wasn’t like they were in a church, after all. Somebody whistled and a child’s voice cheered and then everyone broke out in applause.

“I love you,” Darcy breathed.

He stole one more quick kiss. “Love you so much, Darcy.”

As the clapping died down, Bruce announced, “It’s my privilege to introduce the newlyweds: Bucky and Darcy Barnes.”

It was only then that he turned and looked at everyone around him, all the smiling faces that seemed to reinforce that yes, this was happening, Darcy was his _wife._ There wasn’t really an aisle to walk down, but hand-in-hand they walked past everyone, over to a small table where someone had set up glasses of champagne. He knew what they were probably meant to do was drink a toast – a nice photo opportunity for anyone who had their camera ready – but he couldn’t resist kissing her again first. A little deeper this time, not enough to get himself into trouble, but enough to make them both sigh into it a little. And then he held her close, smiling so hard it almost hurt. “You know you just kissed a married man, sweetheart.”

Darcy winked at him. “Planning on making a habit of it.”


	12. Chapter 12

Despite the small number of people, the evening was a whirlwind. Darcy felt like she’d never hugged and kissed so many people or received so many compliments in her life. But really, she only had eyes for Bucky. _He’s my husband. My husband. I’m Mrs. Barnes now._ Some variation of that theme had been drumming a happy little beat through the back of her mind, completely independent of the Motown music somebody had thrown on when they’d all come back to the lounge.

Bucky was across the room, having his hand shaken by Nick Fury and his back energetically thumped by Thor, and for maybe the first time of the night Darcy had a second to herself. She used it to finally grab a few of the appetizers that were being passed around, then poured herself a glass of sparkling water and took a second to just admire her man. She’d been weak in the knees for him since before they’d ever met, since seeing him on the news way back, and as far as she was concerned he was hot as hell no matter how scruffy he was – but clean-shaven, in a perfectly-tailored black suit, crisp white dress shirt, tie a little loosened around his neck? He was devastating _._ And though she didn’t want to rush their celebration away, she was already more than a little hot and bothered with the anticipation of getting him alone later.

Almost as if he sensed her gaze on him, he turned, gave her a smile that could have lit up the compound, and made a beeline in her direction. “How are you doing, doll?”

“Finally managed to grab some food,” she laughed. “I realized at some point that I hadn’t eaten since like ten this morning. But I was mostly just standing here musing about incredibly handsome my husband is.” She couldn’t help using the term at every opportunity, even though she knew it was cheesy. “You look really, really hot in a suit.”

She saw a flush spread across his cheeks and it blew her mind a little that she could still disarm him like that with an absolutely true compliment. “Yeah?” he asked, letting his teeth scrape across his lower lip just a little.

Darcy knew somebody was bound to come over to talk to them any second, but while they still had a moment to themselves she couldn’t resist coming up on tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “Yeah. And you’re gonna look even hotter out of it, later.”

His eyes closed for a moment at that, before he leaned down and replied in a low voice. “I’ve been thinking about your dress too. And how pretty it’s going to look later, pushed up around your waist.”

“God.” She felt a shudder of want run down her spine. “James Buchanan Barnes, you’re a fucking tease.”

“Got a good teacher,” he replied.

Before she could say anything back to that, they were caught up with well-wishers again, Bucky getting pulled into conversation with Rhodes and Hill, and Darcy was just thinking about making a first raid on the dessert table when she found herself face-to-face with Loki. “I believe congratulations are in order,” he said, in that smooth, oddly British voice of his. It was the first he’d actually spoken to her since the kidnapping incident.

“Thanks.”

“More than that, I am overdue to apologize,” he continued, then pulled a small, narrow box seemingly out of nowhere. “A wedding gift, which perhaps you will find useful in future if any other misguided souls decide to entangle you in their… bullshit.”

With more than a little wariness, she opened the box to find a small knife in a sheath. “Really, dude?” She pulled it out, revealing a wicked blade, a bit of a blue tinge to its metal surface. Despite its small size, it looked like it could probably stab a hole in a steel girder. “This is so cool. Thank you.” She twisted her wrist a little, getting a feel for it, and was just thinking how badass it would be to wear it tucked down her bra, or hidden in a boot, when Bucky’s hand closed over hers.

“I’ll teach you to use it,” he said, putting his other arm round her waist from behind. “And how to carry it. Safely. But not tonight, alright?”

“Alright.” Taking one more look at the blade, she slid it back into the sheath and replaced it in the box that Loki was still holding. “I accept your apology, Loki. Because I am in an excellent mood and now I can stab you if you ever try that shit again.”

Loki actually smiled, as he closed the box and handed it to her. “I would expect nothing less.” With a nod to the two of them, he slipped out of the room.

Turning around in Bucky’s embrace, Darcy held up the box. “Sooo… I’m thinking we should take this home. You know, safety reasons, since there’s kids here and all.”

He laughed, and she saw his gaze flick over to the clock on the wall behind the bar. “It’s only nine-forty-five.”

“Well, we _are_ an old married couple now. Early bedtime and all that,” she joked.

“They probably want us to at least cut the cake first.”

That was true. And cake was good for energy. “Okay. Cake first. But then I am dragging you home to have my wicked way with you, Mr. Barnes.”

“I think you’ll find I won’t object, Mrs. Barnes.”

She was glad he’d reminded her about the cake, because it was possibly the best baked good she’d ever had, velvety dark chocolate layered together with raspberry cream. Or maybe it was just because it was the best day she’d ever had, and she knew it was about to get better. “If there is any of this left later, you guys had better box that up for me,” she announced, to no one in particular.

“You gonna need your strength?” Jane asked, gesturing with a martini glass.

“I don’t know, I think Barnes might,” Sam replied, before Darcy could say anything. “I live next door to them, you know.”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Bucky said, but he was laughing, his cheeks tinged with pink. “I’m taking my wife and going home.”

It took another twenty minutes to say goodnight to everyone, and to thank them all, and then when they were nearly out the door Darcy felt a small hand on her arm and looked down to see Morgan. “Darcy, aren’t you going to throw your bouquet?”

She hadn’t planned on it – she’d been awkwardly single at way too many friends’ weddings and had never really liked the custom – but Morgan was standing there expectantly, actually holding the bouquet out to her, and what was she supposed to do? “Um, sure.” But before anyone could make a fuss, she craned her neck and called out “Jane! Heads up!” and flung it in that direction.

Jane reacted automatically, and managed to sort of grab the flowers just as they were about to hit her in the face. “What?”

“C’mon,” Darcy said, tugging Bucky’s hand. “Let’s make our getaway while they explain that to Thor.”

It was only a short distance down the hall, but blissfully quiet inside once the door closed behind them. Darcy set down the box with the knife in it, kicked off her ballet flats, and looked up to find Bucky gazing at her like he couldn’t decide what to do first. “How are you feeling?” she asked, running her hands up his chest. She was dying to take that tie off, start the process of getting him out of that sexy suit so she could have her way with him, but first she needed to know, really know, how he was doing after all of it.

“Feeling like this is the best day of my life,” he replied, his voice so low it sent shivers down her spine as he reached up with his flesh hand and gently removed the clip of flowers from behind her ear, then ran his fingers through her hair. “And like we’re just getting to the best part.” He kissed her then, hard, no preamble, pushing her back against the door as she responded in kind, finally able to give in to the desire that she’d been struggling to keep in check all day.

She wanted to do about ten different things at once. Part of her would have been happy to make out in the front hallway for an indefinite amount of time, because kissing Bucky was hotter than sex had been with most of her exes. But at the same time, she wanted to feel his hands, wanted that talented tongue between her thighs, wanted his cock inside her, wanted to get on her knees for him and slowly take him to pieces. An impossible choice, and wasn’t that a nice problem to have? “Want you,” she breathed, because that covered it all. “Want you so fucking much.”

“Likewise, doll.” It came out as a growl against her cheek. “You have no idea.” His metal hand was on her thigh, and she realized that he’d been inching her dress up little by little as they’d been kissing. Once he had a fistful of fabric hiked up, he snuck his other hand under her skirt, tracing a soft, almost ticklish line up her inner thigh until he froze, his eyes going roughly the size of dinner plates before his face resolved into a predatory sort of grin that almost ended her then and there. “Sweetheart,” he began, low and slow, “ _how_ long have you been walking around in that pretty white dress with nothing underneath?”

“Surprise,” she said, her voice hitching as the pad of his index finger just barely teased across her clit. “Took ‘em off about an hour ago.”

“If I’d’ve known that, we would have left about fifty-nine minutes earlier.” He circled his finger round her opening, making her writhe against the door. “God, you’re so wet.”

“Because you drive me crazy. Bucky, _please._ ” She didn’t even know exactly what she was asking for, just _something_ more before she crawled out of her own skin.

In response, he slid two fingers up inside her, then added a third, his thumb resting on her clit and rocking against her with the rhythm of his fingers sliding in and out. “So fucking beautiful, Darcy. Been waiting all night for this.” It only took minutes before he had her falling apart, her knees almost giving out under her as she came. Before she could get too wobbly – almost before she could take a breath – he scooped her up into his arms. “Think it’s time I took my wife to bed.”

When they got to the bedroom, he set her down on the bed, shrugged off his jacket and removed the tie. As he began to unbutton his shirt, Darcy reached round to her back to see if she could unzip the dress herself, but he shook his head. “Not yet, doll. There’s something I’ve gotta do.”

She had a pretty good idea of what it was going to be, but the look on his face as he took his shirt off and crawled up the bed towards her – equal parts hunger and awe – gave her shivers of anticipation. He pushed her skirt up out of his way, blocking her view of him as he kissed his way up the inside of her thigh. Somehow the fact that she couldn’t see him, couldn’t see anything past the voluminous white dress, made it even more of a turn-on as he lifted her legs up to rest on his shoulders and descended on her with his tongue. “Fuck… you’re so fucking good at this,” she groaned. He was so skilled with that mouth, but even better than that was how obviously he loved it.

He said something in reply, but she didn’t quite catch it, only felt the vibrations against her before he slid his fingers inside – the left hand this time, the metal unyielding and a little cooler than skin – and closed his mouth over her clit, sucking gently and then not-so-gently till she was arching her back and cursing and calling out his name.

“Oh god,” she sighed, as he finally emerged from under the layers of dress. “I wanna take this off but I can’t move.”

Bucky laughed, wiping his wet mouth off on the back of his hand. “Let me help you, sweetheart.” He pulled the zipper down slowly and helped her pull it off over her head.

He still had his pants on, though they were doing nothing to hide the state he was in. “How about I help you?” she replied, reaching for his belt.

“Too much help and this might all be over,” he replied, though he let her undo everything before he stepped back to kick them off, underwear going with them.

“I have faith in your stamina,” she laughed, feeling giddy as he climbed up over her and lined himself up. And then finally, finally, he buried his cock inside her and for a long moment they just stayed still like that. “God, Bucky, I love you,” she gasped. “This is fucking perfect.”

Resting his weight on his forearms, he leaned down to kiss her. “Yeah, it is. You and me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost wrote "The End" here - but there's a brief epilogue to come.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Checking back in to see how Bucky and Darcy are doing...

**\- Epilogue -**

“Jesus. How long was I gone?” Looking out the window of the quinjet as they just started to come within sight of the compound, Bucky took stock of how the autumn colours had progressed since he’d left.

Sam snorted. “Eight days, man. You say that like we were in Wakanda for eight months.”

“Hey, a lot can change in eight days.”

“Just be glad you didn’t get banged up,” Sam replied. “Because it looks like the welcome wagon’s waiting for you.”

Bucky smiled, and ran a hand through his hair – it was getting long again, and he hadn’t decided yet whether to cut it or not. “I learned my lesson about trying to keep that sort of thing from Darcy ages ago.”

Sam shook his head. “She’s way too good for your sorry ass.”

“Don’t I know it.” Shaking his head, he moved over towards the back of the jet as they made their final descent and touched down on the roof. He was striding down the ramp as it was still opening, impatient to be home, and wanting to make the most of the few minutes he’d have before they had to go for debrief. The second his boots hit the ground he heard a familiar voice.

“Daddy!”

He crouched down and opened his arms, just in time to be hit with the full force of an excited almost-three-year-old. A few steps behind, Darcy was laughing. “It was all I could do to get her to wait long enough for the plane to touch down.”

Sitting down more securely on the tarmac, Bucky settled his daughter on his knee. “Lillian Rebecca Barnes, did you get a foot taller while I was gone?” he asked, running his hand over her unruly brown curls.

“No, Daddy, my foots are the same,” she replied, crinkling up her nose in some confusion.

“C’mon, Lily,” Darcy called. “Let Daddy get up so I can give him a hug too, before he has to go back to work.”

Laughing, Bucky took Lily by the hand and got to his feet, putting his free arm around Darcy’s waist and kissing her thoroughly, before moving his hand to rest on her stomach. “I’m sorry I was gone so long, sweetheart. Did everything go okay with the…”

“The ultrasound?” she finished for him. “Yeah, it was fine. You can make it up to me later,” she added, giving his ass a none-too-subtle grope that he was pretty sure Wilson would rib him about at debrief.

“And… the baby’s okay, so far?” He knew he would have heard if something was wrong, but he still had to ask.

Darcy beamed. “He’s absolutely fine.”

It took a second, and he realized Darcy was laughing as he processed it. “He?”

“Yep. I’d say a mini you, if Lily wasn’t already practically your mini-me as it is. Those Barnes genes are as strong as…” She cut off her sentence, mischief written all over her face; they were both still getting used to the fact that Lily was getting big enough to listen in on everything they said.

“She’s got a lot of you in her too, doll,” he replied, lifting Lily up to his shoulder rather than have her trying to hang off his left arm. “So will her brother.”

From behind, Sam clapped him on the back. “Brother, huh? Congratulations, man. One of each – my mom used to call that the millionaire’s family.”

Darcy laughed. “Yeah, let me know when to expect that million dollars. Right, Bucky?”

Pulling her close, Bucky kissed her forehead. “I’ve already got everything I need.”

**The End.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, we close the book on this series! Thank you to everyone who has come along for the ride, and thank you for your kudos and your kind comments. I'm working on a new Bucky/Darcy story, but the next one will be a post-Infinity-War fix-it (in which Thor went for the head), so there are more of the characters we know and love. I'll wait till it's done to start posting, so look for that probably early summer.


End file.
